Consolidation of the Inland Cutthroat Trout Protocol (ICP) databases: Where we've been and where we're going

Monitoring and assessment of threatened and endangered fish populations can be a difficult and costly endeavor. Developing a standardized data management system for these species can benefit natural resource agencies. In 2002 the Inland Cutthroat Trout Protocol (ICP) was developed to provide an integrated GIS database detailing occupied habitat and specific demographic information important to the persistence of Westslope cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki lewisii). Since this initial population assessment, the ICP has been applied to Yellowstone, Colorado River, Bonneville, Rio Grande, Greenback and Lahontan cutthroat trout. However, with each new ICP database, new and/or modified approaches to managing the data have occurred, leading to potential issues when comparing summary results between species. To remedy the potential issue of ‘database drift', we have invoked a process to consolidate and standardize all of the current ICP databases. The creation of a single data structure has two primary advantages, data summaries will be consistent and comparable between species, and custom data management tools can be easily implemented to speed update and reporting processes. As demands increase on natural resource agencies and the species they manage, this approach may provide a model for future cross-agency and cross-species collaborations.