18 January 2013

Articles for this issue

1. 012 Edition of "U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, BUILDING STRONG, Serving the Nation and the Armed Forces"
2. OMBIL ES Module data entry - Invasive Species

012 Edition of "U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, BUILDING STRONG, Serving the Nation and the Armed Forces"

The 2012 Edition of "U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, BUILDING STRONG, Serving the Nation and the Armed Forces" provides an overview of the Corps and how it fulfills its various missions. It includes two articles of particular interest to NRM:

"The Great Outdoors" (pp. 124-127) describes the USACE recreation programs role in the Americas Great Outdoors (AGO) Initiative. The article highlights collaboration and partnership successes such as C.A.S.T and the Veterans Curation Program.

"The Corps Park Rangers" (pp. 132-135) profiles individual commitment and dedication to this highly visible public service career, specifically the experiences of Scott Kelley at Hartwell Lake and of Michelle Frobose at the Willamette Valley Project. The article discusses the wide range of responsibilities and the challenges that Park Rangers meet.

An article of general interest is "Built to Order" (pp. 112-123) which gives an historical perspective on how the Corps has evolved over the years. The entire "Serving the Nation&" publication provides a good read about our agency. NRM employees will be interested to see references to or photos of lake projects within several articles throughout the publication, notably the sustainable design of the Dewey Short Visitor Center at Table Rock Lake (p. 77).

OMBIL ES Module data entry - Invasive Species

The Corps' Invasive Species Leadership Team requests your assistance with invasive species reporting in the OMBIL Environmental Stewardship Module. The goal is to have 100% of the projects sites entering data on invasive species so that we can better track the Corps' efforts at the national scale in 2013. We use this information to report invasive species management activity for our agency to the National Invasive Species Council. Specifically we are asking for:

1 - All project sites to complete "Step 6: Invasive Species" in the OMBIL Annual Update.

2 - Make sure the species you are entering at the "Project Site Invasive Species" screen are actually invasive species in your area. Remember, just because it's on the OMBIL invasive species list doesn't mean that it is necessarily an invasive species at your project. It may be within its native range. If you have questions, call your regional Invasive Species Leadership Team representative. A list of members can be found at http://corpslakes.usa ce.army.mil/employees/islt/members.cfm

3 - Finally, double check the accuracy of the "acreage impacted" and the "acreage treated in this fiscal year". The more accurate this information, the better we can characterize the problems that our agency is dealing with.

Thanks for your help.
Mark Cornish

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