How did the CRADA program arise?
FESTF began its work in 1994, in response to EPAs requirement for the development of site-specific location data on endangered species. A pilot program as well as an investigation of how such data could be generated, collated and used in management decisions eventually demonstrated to EPA and FESTF members that collecting location information was not logistically or temporally practical. EPA and FESTF also learned that an abundance of generally available species location data were in existence, but they were aggregated at various local, county and state levels. During the information discovery process, EPA and the Task Force became aware of a national effort to uniformly aggregate these data. After exploration of various existing and emerging private and public efforts to assemble these data, in 1997 the Task Force and EPA recognized that the research and development program now embodied in the CRADA had the best prospect of aggregating existing data and delivering it in a manner usefu
