The Umpqua Basin Explorer is an interactive, web-based information portal that provides users with integrated information, tools and expertise about natural resources in Oregon’s Umpqua Basin.  It is designed to serve the needs of local citizens, policymakers and other interested people such as restoration practitioners and resource managers.  The Umpqua Basin Explorer allows users to access data about such activities as watershed restoration and water-quality monitoring which are occurring in the basin.

The site was developed through a partnership between the Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers, the Institute for Natural Resources at Oregon State University, OSU Libraries and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.  The Water Quality Exploration Tool was created in close consultation and with the assistance of staff from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.  The Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers secured grant funding for this site from the Roseburg District Resource Advisory Committee of the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board.

The Umpqua Basin Explorer included three phases: Phase 1 included providing access to integrated spatial data about restoration projects from such sources as the Oregon Watershed Restoration Inventory, the Interagency Restoration Database of federal projects, and the Umpqua Basin Watershed Council's project database; and Phase 2 included a water-quality component intended to provide direct links for submitting data to and the ability to report out from the Pacific Northwest Water Quality Exchange. Please see the Phase 2 Project Completion Report (PDF) for more information; and Phase 3 included a digital library of information about fish and water in the Umpqua Basin, much of which is contained in reports that are not widely available.

The Umpqua Basin Explorer is part of the Oregon Explorer family of web portals, which includes the North Coast Explorer, the Willamette Basin Explorer, the Oregon Wildlife Explorer and a “parent” website, the Oregon Explorer.

The Web site was made public in March of 2006.

Acknowledgements 

The Partnership for the Umpqua Rivers secured grant funding for this project from the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service and a grant from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board.

Banner Photo Credit

South Umpqua River at Tiller: Courtesy of Sandy Lyon.