1. HUC
2. Ref_Site_No
3. Date*
4. County
5. Project
6. Waterway
7. Commonloc
8. Road_No
9. River_Basin
10. State
11. Latitude*
12. Longitude*
13. Collectors*
14. Site_Comments
15. Sci_Name
Template
An example excel spreadsheet in the format above can be downloaded from
the FWGNA website.
Notes:
(1) The US Geological Survey has divided all regional water resources into hydrological units, and given each a code number, or "HUC." Enter 8-digit HUC in field #1 if available.
(2) Collector's original site number or code, if applicable. Also useful for
museum catalogue numbers.
(3) mm/dd/yyyy
(4) Do not include the descriptor "County" or "Co." If (for example) a collection was taken from Godforsaken County, Nevada, simply enter "Godforsaken" in this field. If the collection was made on the border of two counties, separate by a slash. Equivalent terms, such as "parish" in Louisiana, may be substituted.
(5) Local project name or funding source (if any).
(6) The name of the lake or stream, if available. Standard abbreviations such as "L. Huron," or "St. Lawrence R." or "Stinking Ck." are acceptable. If the water body is unnamed, leave this field blank.
(7) Express the locality data as precisely as possible in conventional terms. No need to be redundant with other fields. For example, suppose a fresh sample came from "Stinking Creek at State Route 34 bridge, 2 km W of Dumpton, Godforsaken County, Nevada." Then for field (7), simply enter "2 km W of Dumpton."
(8) The route number of the road at the bridge or access where the collection was made. Prefix with US, state, or county abbreviation, if appropriate. For the example above, the entry would simply be, "NV 34."
(9) Entries in the "River Basin" field begin with a two or three-character symbol to indicate major drainage, for example, ATL: for Atlantic, TN: for Tennessee, OH: for (upper) Ohio, GTL: for Great Lakes, and MIS: for (main) Mississippi. This may be followed by the name of a major subdrainage, as for example ATL:Potomac or TN:Clinch.
(10) Use standard two-letter abbreviations. If on the border of two states, separate by a slash. Equivalent terms, such as "province" in Canada, may be substituted.
(11) & (12) - Use decimal degrees. All FWGNA records must be plottable.
(13) Record collector(s) name in ordinary (first, last) order. Initials are OK for given names, but please specify full family name of the collector(s).
(14) Free field. Enter anything you'd like to observe about the habitat here, or about the population of snails being recorded, the collection methods used, and so forth.
(15) Genus-space-species. Do not include subgenus or authority. Subspecies may be specfied as Genus-space-species-space-subspecies.