Aquatic invasive species are often transported between water bodies on boats or boat trailers. Thus, contaminated boats and boat trailers are considered one of the primary vectors for introduction of invasive species into a new water body. This data set was compiled in response to a funding grant from the Bonneville Power Administration Technology Innovation group (Cooperative agreement #59650, Technology Innovation Project #276) to provide a GIS layer of river access points (boat ramps) within the Columbia and Snake Rivers and water bodies throughout the Columbia River Basin. This work builds on an earlier body of work by Wells et al. 2011, Prioritizing Zebra and Quagga Mussel Monitoring in the Columbia River Basin, also funded by the Bonneville Power Administration Technology Innovation group (contract # 00003373), which provided much of the past water quality, use information, and categorical values for the risk of introduction and the risk of establishment (referred to as risk assessment data) of zebra and quagga mussels for a water body. Updated information has been added by collecting additional data on use of water bodies, as well as combined categorical ranking methodology for identifying water bodies that may be high risk for both introduction and establishment of zebra and quagga mussels. This data set contains geographic positioning system (GPS) locational data for boater access points, use data (i.e. recreational, fishing), water quality measurements (e.g. calcium concentrations, pH), risk assessment data, and other physical attributes (i.e. size, elevation) from their associated water bodies where available. Although, some of the recreational use data has been updated since the previous work no new ranking of this data has been done. The intent of this data set is to provide an online, spatial database for states and regional managers to reference. The GPS locational data was compiled from various resources (including state, federal, tribal, local governing bodies, etc.) to identify boater access points along the mainstem Columbia and Snake Rivers and throughout the Columbia River Basin. Water body data attributes were also compiled from a variety of resources including state, federal, provincial and local governing agencies, as well as Tribes, universities, and public utilities, from which direct data calls were sent for information on monitoring activities, water quality data, and recreational use information. In addition to these agencies a variety of websites were used to download reports and individual data items for water bodies across many different states. A list of websites accessed throughout the data compilation process is included in the data source inputs section. This is the tabular data used to create the boatramps shapefile.
