The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation Move Their Fisheries Program Forward with GeoOptix® The Confederated Tribes is an early adopter of the new GeoOptix monitoring platform

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) has over

3,100 tribal members with nearly half living on or near the Umatilla Reservation.

The reservation spans nearly 172,000 acres (~273 square miles) and is governed by a

Constitution and by-laws adopted in 1949.

The day-to-day work of the Confederated Tribes is conducted by a staff of nearly 500

employees consisting of tribal members and non-Indians. The Umatilla Basin includes

a healthy river capable of providing First Foods that sustain the continuity of the

Tribe’s culture. First Foods have provided sustenance and promoted health in native

communities for countless generations. As part of the CTUIR Department of Natural

Resources, the Fisheries Program works to ensure sustainable harvest opportunities

for all aquatic species of the First Food order by protecting, conserving, and restoring

native aquatic populations and their habitats. To support this goal, the monitoring

and evaluation program’s mission is “to generate knowledge regarding biological

performance and ecology of aquatic species of the First Food order in a scientifically-

credible and policy-relevant manner to inform management and policy decisions.”

C A S E S T U D Y : C O N F E D E R A T E D T R I B E S O F T H E U M A T I L L A I N D I A N R E S E R V A T I O N

The Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla

people make up the Confederated

Tribes of the Umatilla Indian

Reservation. Since time immemorial,

the member tribes have lived on

the Columbia River Plateau; their

homeland is now northeastern

Oregon and southeastern

Washington. In 1855, the three tribes

signed a treaty with the United States

government which ceded more than

6.4 million acres to the United States.

In exchange, the tribes reserved the

rights to fish, hunt, and gather food

and medications from the ceded

lands. Tribal members still exercise

and protect these rights today.

In 2008, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a final

biological opinion on the operation of the Federal Columbia River Power System for salmon

and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act. The opinion (FCRPS BiOp RPA

50) mandates Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to collaborate with NOAA and other

action agencies to improve aquatic monitoring in the Columbia River Basin. The resulting

basin-wide monitoring program required 22 field crews from 12 agencies, tribes, and private

firms to collect data from more than 350 sites in 11 watersheds using a synchronized set of

methods. In 2010, BPA unveiled the Columbia Habitat Monitoring Program (CHaMP) to

standardize all data collection, centralize analyses, automate QA/QC, and uniformly publish

monitoring data. The CTUIR used this platform to monitor efforts to evaluate tributary

habitat conditions, action effectiveness, and inform future habitat improvement actions.

THE CHALLENGEFor six years, the Fisheries Program used the BPA-funded CHaMP platform for their

monitoring efforts. In 2017, the program was informed their ongoing use of the platform

wasn’t going to be supported going forward, so they needed to find a new solution to replace

it. With nine years of legacy data spanning 12 protocols, the program was determined to

avoid returning to pen and paper.

Since Sitka had developed and maintained the CHaMP platform for BPA, the Fisheries

Program contacted Sitka in the Fall of 2017 to see if there were any plans to support

monitoring programs like theirs going forward. At that point, they learned about GeoOptix,

a new field and lab data management platform, that was in development and its initial

release was on track to be completed in June 2018 in time for the upcoming field season.

After a thorough review of the new platform’s key benefits, the CTUIR chose to sign up with

the GeoOptix Early Experience Program and be one of the first to use it in the field.

THE SOLUTIONOut of the gate, Sitka’s primary focus was to ensure the CTUIR Fisheries Program

experienced a smooth transition from their legacy platform to the new API-driven one—

all in time for the upcoming field season. To make this a reality, the field crew needed to be

equipped with a connected mobile app that funneled the collected data into the web-based

Data Manager for QA/QC and analysis.

GeoOptix Gather™ ProgrammableEvents

Geo-redundant Encrypted Storage

GeoOptix Data Manager

REST API

GeoOptix Analytics

Data Warehousing

QC and Analytics

Web Portals and Sharing

Workflow Automation

Communications

GeoOptix platform components.

“We had been using CHaMP

for the past six years. When the

program lost its funding support,

we reached out to Sitka to see

what options they had that would

allow us to keep using the mobile

data collector. We didn’t want

to go back to pen and paper.”

Kaylyn Costi, Fish Biologist,

The Confederated Tribes of the

Umatilla Indian Reservation

GeoOptix Benefits include:

1. Control costs by equipping your

staff to do more in less time.

2. Expand capabilities by

automating analyses, models, and

notifications with a robust API.

3. Streamline workflows by nixing

spreadsheets and getting

validated data all in one place.

4. Access anywhere by enabling

instant access to study designs,

analyses, visualizations,

and more via the cloud.

C A S E S T U D Y : C O N F E D E R A T E D T R I B E S O F T H E U M A T I L L A I N D I A N R E S E R V A T I O N

The initial group to use GeoOptix at the Confederated Tribes included 7 users, 8 projects,

14 sites, 94 samples, and 18 field assignments. Kaylyn Costi, Fish Biologist for the CTUIR,

oversees this team and serves as GeoOptix program administrator. The platform was built

to provide designated administrators full control over the permissions and roles of their

respective organization’s data management program. “With GeoOptix, I have so much

more control over our data, our workflows, and our schedule,” noted Ms. Costi.

Addressing Cloud Storage Concerns

At its core, GeoOptix is a hyper-nimble data storage repository that uses metadata to

describe the shape of data that is stored and analyzed. Existing data from legacy systems

can be imported by first describing the shape of the data and then using an API to import it.

Initially the CTUIR IT group was reticent to entrust its data to the cloud despite the fact

that GeoOptix leverages industry-leading security and back-up measures for all stored data.

Nevertheless, this is a common concern by both tribal and government agencies. It was

alleviated since GeoOptix allows for copies of all collected data to be stored on tribal servers

at regular, pre-defined intervals.

Handling Legacy Data

Since GeoOptix is an open data platform, any data can be imported using simple tools via

the GeoOptix web API and GeoOptix Data Manager. To simplify this process, tools for

importing simple data structures and ancillary files are included with the platform. If an

organization’s data structures are large or complex in nature, the Sitka customer success

team can handle the import.

To ensure the transition went smoothly, Sitka ported over all the existing protocols and field

methods from the legacy platform and made them available to Kaylyn and her team prior to

the start of field season.

Collecting Data in the Field

With crews often needing to collect data in remote location without cell service, it is

customary that input data is stored on the mobile device until the sample is complete,

passes all validation tests, and is uploaded. With the old system, the Fisheries Program had

enjoyed using its data collection field app and didn’t want to lose any functionally with the

transition. The move to the GeoOptix Gather™ mobile application proved to be seamless

and required minimal training. Ms. Costi simply introduced her team to the new mobile

app with, “It’s going to look a little different, but it’s very intuitive.” The team was up and

running within minutes.

API stands for “Application

Programming Interface.” In

computer programming, an API

is a set of subroutine definitions,

communication protocols, and tools

for building and extending software.

C A S E S T U D Y : C O N F E D E R A T E D T R I B E S O F T H E U M A T I L L A I N D I A N R E S E R V A T I O N

The GeoOptix Data Manager

In preparation for the launch of GeoOptix, Sitka spent a lot of resources and time on fine-

tuning the web application’s user experience. While the management portal will evolve

over time, the initial feedback regarding layout and intuitiveness has been positive.

C A S E S T U D Y : C O N F E D E R A T E D T R I B E S O F T H E U M A T I L L A I N D I A N R E S E R V A T I O N

THE RESULTSWhen the 2018 field season came to a close, the Fisheries Group had successfully collected

94 samples and gigabytes of data.

Thanks to the level of control given to each GeoOptix customer, the program administrator

can set up a new protocol in the morning and send their crew out to collect data that

afternoon. With their prior data collection systems, this would not be possible. It would

typically take a week or two to get it set up in the system thereby making field crew

scheduling much more difficult. “I appreciate that GeoOptix gives us more ownership of

our program,” noted Ms. Costi.

LESSONS LEARNED

• Don’t procrastinate: The Fisheries

Program has been pleased with

the results they’ve experienced

this first season using GeoOptix.

They only wish they could have

started using it sooner.

• Never sacrifice your legacy:

Make sure to choose a platform

and company that works with

and incorporates your legacy

data, so your monitoring

dataset remains seamless.

• Maintain control: The more

ownership and control you have

over your system the better.

Sitka Technology Group • 920 SW 6th Avenue, Suite 111, Portland, OR 97204 • 1.800.805.6740 • sales@sitkatech.com • www.sitkatech.com • @sitkatech

GET STARTED

For organizations interested in streamlining their monitoring programs with the GeoOptix® platform,

please contact us at 1.800.805.6740 or sales@sitkatech.com

For more information, please visit: www.geooptix.com

Sitka Technology Group is the leading provider of enterprise-level software solutions to streamline and power the acquisition, management, and visualization of field data for environmental conservation efforts.Copyright © 2018 Sitka Technology Group. Sitka and the Sitka logo are registered trademarks of Sitka Technology Group. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.