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33 Plant Information Network 53 changed to the Plant Information Network or PIN. The concept behind this system was to develop a tool that could provide informa- tion about plant species and vegetation to land use planners and resource managers. !loch of the information these people need is often unavailable to them because of a lack of library facilities, or a lack of time to obtain the appropriate information. The PIN system is designed to provide that information in a short time to [he users. Sources of information included in PIN are: (1) herbarium specimen labels from major herbaria in each of three states; (2) ex- tensive searches through scientific, professional, and popular publi- cations pertaining to [he taxonomy, geography, biology, ecology, and economics of the plants found in the three states; and (3) the unpub- lished judgment and experience of long-time experts and field re- searchers on the attributes and utility of plants 1n the areas of wildlife-plan[ relations, livestock-plant relations, soil-plant relatlons, and man-plant relations. Three major uses of PIN were anticipated and are now resulting from the system. These,lnclude F1)~vagetetion inventories-=lists of 'species found in any county of the three states can be queried from the system, (2) environmental assessment and impact analysis--economic and ecologic value of species are recorded in the system and can be queried and used for anticipating the effects of disturbances or land use changes, (3) reclamation planning--queries can be construc- ted to obtain lists of plants adapted to site conditions and having desirable characteristics to fulfill reclamation objectives. INFORMATION AVAILABLE The basic information entry in the system is by species. The species included are the ones for which there are vouchered speci- mens collected and on file in four herbaria. These herbaria are the Colorado State University Uerbarium, the University of Colorado Museum Herbarium, the Rocky Mountain Herbarium at the University of Wyoming and the Ptontana State University Herbarium in Montana. Currently there are approximately 4,000 plant special entered in the system. The characteristics For these species are grouped into five categories. These categories include taxonomic, geographical, biological, economic, and ecological information. The information in .these categories is divided .into units called descriptors. At the present.time'there,are 234 descriptors for each plant species iq the system. These descriptors include 96 general bits df information's in the S categories, plus the 143 counties of the three states.