Currently Utah Species data is siloed in many ways severely limiting its utility internally and externally. BioBase has the potential to be a catch-all database spatially queryable across species and species groups. DWR's Habitat Section has made a great start on BioBase with internal resources but, in order to maintain momentum, outside expertise is required to connect BioBase to national databases, refine user permissions, and allow for advanced data sharing and analysis.

Building a robust database and application would promote improved wildlife planning efforts. The data will inform management actions and sampling/surveying, avoid species listing under the Endangered Species Act, advise translocation efforts, inform invasive plant species mitigation, support lands management to include monitoring and permitting, and help to identify and maintain terrestrial and aquatic migration corridors. This database will be of use to DWR Habitat, Wildlife, and Aquatic Sections for conservation and game/sport species alike.

The BioBase concept has been around for at least 15 years but the means to implement it were cost prohibitive and technically challenging. Through the FY24 and FY25 development of the Wildlife Habitat Analysis Tool (WHAT) and the Pay For Performance (P4P) initiative we now have a google cloud database engineer on staff who is able to facilitate data compilation, pipelines, standards, and analysis. SPA and other funding for WHAT kickstarted both the initial underlying data consolidation for BioBase but also allowed our staff member to hone data management and pipeline skills. Modern cloud storage has also evolved to a point where hosting our own data is not only financially viable but also more cost effective than traditional alternatives. Finally, the Google Cloud Platform allows for unique capabilities related to big data ingestion and analysis that were not previously available.

Examples of Management Plans that will leverage BioBase data include: Utah Wildlife Action Plan Habitat Management Plans for all Wildlife and Waterfowl Management Areas Utah Statewide Elk Management Plan Utah Beaver Management Plan Utah Bighorn Sheep Statewide Management Plan Utah Wild Turkey Management Plan Utah Mule Deer Statewide Management Plan Utah Upland Game Management Plan Utah Conservation Plan for Greater Sage-grouse

BioBase data could potentially support habitat restoration efforts that reduce the risk of fire in critical wildlife habitat areas.

BioBase data could potentially support aquatic and terrestrial habitat restoration efforts that improve water quality and/or increase water quantity on the landscape (e.g. analysis resulting in optimal beaver dam analog or guzzler placement).

BioBase will help ensure protected records remain protected but are also able to be used by DWR staff and partners to manage and protect wildlife and their habitat.

Contract with a firm that can help achieve the following: Identify project key members and coordinate resources Establish the mechanics of project communication, reporting, collaboration, risk management, and change management Establish status meeting cadence Review and verify the scope of work and project approach Review project risks and risk mitigation strategies Review and finalize task assignments

Project monitoring will take place through at least monthly status updates to ensure timelines are met on key milestones and deliverables.

The DWR has solicited feedback from Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining; Utah Division of Transportation; Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands; Utah Division of Water Resources; the Bureau of Land Management; and various non-profits. This database and application could be applicable to state and federal government agencies and state educational partners and could facilitate collaboration more effectively.

The continued investment in BioBase will allow DWR and partners to conduct management work to help prevent species of concern from being federally listed as threatened or endangered, and work to delist those species that are currently listed. It will also support management efforts for valuable sport species. Data quality assurance and quality control will be possible in new and transparent ways. Future Utah Wildlife Action Plan revisions will be supported with more robust data but also quicker access to more complete species distributions and range extents to help inform S-ranks. BioBase will also contain some threat information such as disease data and will make data gaps more apparent, also supporting more accurate and efficient S-rank decision-making.

Consistently formatted and accessible data for biologists and other project champions is necessary to protect wildlife resources in Utah. This solution also has the potential to support the 2015 Wildlife Action Plan call for wide-scale and robust species distribution models or habitat selection models using occurrence data from any species or group of species. In addition to modeling species distribution and habitat, biologists will be able to model occupancy, density, abundance, home range, temporal trends in survey, and seasonality. This information will provide staff and partners the ability to decrease risk to species and their habitats through integrated implementation of the Wildlife Action Plan, species recovery plans, conservation agreements, and other management plans.