Slide 3 shows only the number of active USGS streamgages from 1980 through 2005 at a different scale than slide 2 (blue line of slide 2) showing more of the year to year variability in the number of active streamgages. A rapid decline of over 850 streamgages from 1981 to 1984 can be seen in slide 3. For the 14 year period from 1984 until about 1998, the streamgaging network was fairly stable, although declining slightly. From 1999 through 2003, the network showed a steady increase in the number of active streamgages. It was during this time that NSIP received a substantial increase in funding that helped sustain the growth in the network, although most of the streamgages added to the network with NSIP funding were reactivations of critical previously discontinued streamgages. The number of streamgages in the network declined in both 2004 and 2005 due to level funding for NSIP and the Cooperative Water Program and inflationary cost increases for operating streamgages of 3 to 4 percent per year. Slide 4 shows the number of the streamgages that have been designated as NSIP Federal-goal streamgages active each year from 1980 through 2004 at a different scale than in Slide 2 (red line of slide 2). Although the NSIP plan was not developed until about 2000, a substantial number of the streamgages that would be part of the NSIP backbone network were already in operation, funded through the Cooperative Water Program.

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