Stewardship of the National Hydrography and Watershed Boundary Datasets

United States Department of the Interior
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
Wyoming State Office
P.O. Box 1828
IN REPLY REFER TO: Cheyenne, Wyoming 82009-1828
1703 (930) P
March 23, 2010
EMS TRANSMISSION: March 23, 2010
Instruction Memorandum No. WY-2010-023
Expires 9/30/2011
To: District Managers and Field Managers
From: Deputy State Director, Resources Policy and Management
Subject: Stewardship of the National Hydrography and Watershed Boundary Datasets
The attached Washington Office Instruction Memorandum (IM) WO-2009-212 establishes
national policy regarding the use and maintenance of the 1:24,000 scale Watershed Boundary
(WBD) and National Hydrography (NHD) Datasets. As described in this IM, Wyoming BLM
will utilize these datasets as standard data sources where appropriate and work cooperatively
with other agencies to maintain standard data consistency and quality.
In Wyoming, the WBD was completed and certified in 2002 and the NHD was completed and
certified in 2005. Under pertinent national agreements, the U. S. Geological Survey maintains
and serves as the custodian for the national NHD dataset while the Natural Resources
Conservation Service performs these services for the national WBD dataset.
Both the NHD and WBD datasets have been posted in the State Office server since 2002 and, as
directed in a 2002 Wyoming Instruction Memorandum, have served as standard datasets for use
in land health assessments, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) actions, and
management decisions. These data sets are posted at the following addresses:
M:\water\statewide\NationalHydrologicDataset, and M:\water\statewide\watrshd-bnds. Each
Field Office can access these datasets from the WSO server and download them as necessary to
its own server.
Rick Schuler, WSO 1010 Soil/Water/Air Program Leader, will continue to serve as the primary
data steward for these datasets and coordinate with other partner agencies in updating
cooperative agreements as necessary. An agreement is in place with the University of Wyoming,
Wyoming Geographical Information and Science Center (UW/WyGISC) for the update of the
NHD on public lands as well as editing coordination with the USGS. Please contact

Rick Schuler at (307) 775-6092 or rick_schuler@blm.gov if your office has edited or anticipates
editing the watershed or hydrography datasets within your area. Questions regarding
maintenance and editing of these datasets should be directed to him as well.
Signed by: Authenticated by:
Bill Hill Pamela D. Hernandez
Deputy State Director, Resources Policy and Wyoming Central Files
Management
1 Attachment
1 - Washington Office Instruction Memorandum No. 2009-212 (5 pp.)
Distribution

Director (220), Room 204, LS 1 (w/o atch.)

CF 1 (w/atch.)