MDNR Chesapeake & Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Program Contact
If you have programmatic or custom model questions, please reach out to Ari Engelberg: [email protected]
Pact Code & RFP
Learning Objectives
Please take advantage of this documentation as a first step when utilizing FieldDoc. The DNR and FieldDoc staff are also available to answer follow-up questions to support your application to Grants Gateway. After completing this guide, you’ll have the knowledge needed to:
Build a Pact. The Pact will include activity records that demonstrate all of the project implementation sites proposed in your grant application. Each activity record includes the option to run models that estimate Total Nitrogen, Total Phosphorus, and Total Suspended reduction.
Grab the shareable FieldDoc Pact URL to share in your Cheseapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bay Trust Fund application in Grants Gateway.
FieldDoc released new features and changes to the application workflow in November 2024. Users must follow the new workflow in order to make sure your application is received by the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund Program Managers.
Getting Started
Opening your workspace
A workspace in FieldDoc is the umbrella organizing unit within an organization account. Each organization starts with a default workspace with the same name as their organization. Within each workspace users build a portfolio of activity records and share those records to funders via Pacts. Project folders are an organizing unit through which users can organize their workspace’s activity records. Data in a project folder is not visible to anyone outside of the organization’s workspace.
Create your pact within the workspace of the official grant applicant. If this application is a collaboration, the lead applicant organization can invite other FieldDoc users to their workspace in order to properly create the Pact and associated record data.
Your FieldDoc task is to build your pact and activity records to share with the the Trust Fund Review Team. The majority of your time in the system will be spent preparing your activity records. There are multiple ways to get this data into FieldDoc.
Key term: Pacts
Pacts are a digital container for a single funding application. It links all the activity records, metrics, and modeling outputs associated with one grant submission.
Each Grants Gateway application will have a single Pact. Do not create a separate Pact for every proposed implementation project within your application.
Think of your Pact like a container in which you will include the activity records that represent the proposed work associated with your Grants Gateway application. Within a Pact the FieldDoc user will create activity records. Each activity record will include the activity type, implementation location, and the option to perform a model run to estimate sediment and nutrient load reductions.
Key term: Activity Records
In FieldDoc, the activity record is the fundamental unit of work. You'll create a record for each of your proposed implementation actions. These records serve as the digital representation of real-world restoration and conservation practices happening on the ground.
Think of it this way: you're translating the “dirt you’re moving on the landscape” into structured data. This data becomes essential for tracking your progress, modeling environmental outcomes, and sharing results with funders, regulators, and partners.
Activity records are important for all FieldDoc users:
Practitioners and grantees use them to plan and document the specific practices they are implementing.
Technical service providers help build or validate activity data, especially when modeling environmental benefits.
Funders and program managers rely on activities to monitor implementation progress and evaluate program impact across portfolios.
Activity records are the representation of one discrete restoration action (e.g., a riparian buffer, a stream restoration) with spatial location, type, and associated model outputs.
Within each activity record you will input:
Activity Name - A unique name that references the proposed project activity
Activity Type - Chosen from a standard list, will ‘turn on’ access to any applicable models
Geometry - use a point, line, or polygon to indicate the implementation area. The geometry collects critical information for many models.
Models for Sediment & nutrient load reductions - input a unit and click run to generate sediment and nutrient load reductions with the model associated with the activity type that was selected.
There are multiple ways to create activity data in FieldDoc. FieldDoc offers two main ways to enter activity data:
The information inputted within each activity type will appear in summary on the Pact overview page and via the Pact Atlas.
All data will become visible to the Trust Fund Managers after the Pact is Submitted.
Step-by-Step Guide
Now that you've been familiarized with the FieldDoc data model and key terms, it's time to set up your FieldDoc application. Follow along as we on-board a new user and their technical service provider so as they create their Trust Fund Application.
Calvert Conservation is a new group working to reduce runoff in Maryland by partnering with ag producers, nonprofits, and engineers. They’re applying to the Trust Fund to restore three streams and install riparian buffers at seven high-impact sites.
To support their FieldDoc application, Margaret—the Director of Conservation—creates a new user account and sets up the Calvert Conservation workspace. They plan to bring in Eco-Saber, a technical service provider who helped plan the projects and has shapefiles ready. Sam invites Alex to the workspace, allowing Alex to log in, switch to Calvert’s workspace, and create records on their behalf.
Step 1: Create your FieldDoc account
Margaret takes the following steps:
Open fielddoc.com/register
Create an account by entering in
First Name,Last Name,work email, andpassword.Open the email prompting you to confirm your email address.
Once confirmed, based on your email domain, FieldDoc will either invite you to create a new organization or join an existing one.
Once your account is linked to an organization, you can start using the system!
Step 2: Invite collaborators to your workspace
Margaret is going to invite her technical service provider to the workspace. Once he has access, he will be completing the proposal on behalf of the Calvert Conservation organization.
Log in to your account. Open up your settings panel in the left hand corner.
Open the workspace settings.
Within the Members tab, enter the email address of the individual that you would like to invite.
Set their permission level to "read only" or "admin". If the user will be creating, editing, or deleting data they must have admin access.
Click invite. If you want to remove access or re-send the invite, you can do that at any time.
The invited collaborator will receive an email from [email protected] with a button asking them to accept the invitation.
Upon acceptance, the user will be prompted to complete setting up their user account if they do not already have a FieldDoc account.
Once logged in, the collaborator will need to switch workspaces in the upper left hand corner in order to create records within their collaborator's account.
Step 3: Create your pact using the provided pact code
From within the Calvert Conservation workspace, create a pact in the open funding opportunity.
From the workspace of the organization submitting the application, navigate to the Pacts tab on the left hand panel.
Click the "+ create" button.
Enter in the Pact name (it should match the name of your grant application) and enter in the unique pact code for this funding opportunity: G6BN.
Click Save.
Now you have a pact shell within which you can add activity records.
Step 4. Add Activity Records.
There are multiple ways to add activity records to your pact. This section provides three basic options for creating activity records and making them visible within the pact.
We are sharing the basic ways to create activity records and add the required attribute data. Some applicants may want to create a more tailored FieldDoc experience with more data managemen. For example, you may want to use the workspace's portfolio folder structure to set up a project folder with sub-folder sections to segment and organize your activity records before sharing them to your Pact. Coming soon, we will have a video documenting that proposed process for you.
Option 1. Create activity records via import
From the Activity tab in your pact, click the "file import" button.
Import your file.
Use the mapping tool to map your source field names to the FieldDoc schema.
Click save.
A record will be created for each row in your file.
Add activity type. Open the record or toggle to the table view to add the activity type to each record.
Activate the model. Open the Edit Activity modal. Navigate to the model tab, enter in the required fields to run the model.
Option 2. Create activity records in FieldDoc
From the Activity tab in your pact, click the "+ Create" button.
Give your activity a unique activity name.
Click save.
Click the edit activity icon on the new tile.
General settings. You can edit the activity name and add a text field description.
Activity type. Open the universal list of activity types and associate one with this record. Make sure to choose the activity type that has an available Adapted Chesapeake Model.
Geometry. You can import a single file or use the point, line, or polygon draw tool to indicate the location and extent of the installation location. Tip: If you do not yet have a confirmed location, use a demonstration location rather than drawing a massive polygon, which could interupt model accuracy.
Model. Follow the prompts on the model page to enter in the required fields and run the model.
Have more activity records? Repeat this process!
Option 3. Link existing activity records
Already have existing activities in your workspace portfolio that you want to make a part of this application? You can use the 'Link activity' button to connect existing activities to this new pact.
Don’t re-use outdated activity records. FieldDoc regularly updates its models and platform tools. If your activity records were created before November 2024, they may contain outdated calculations or incomplete data fields. We strongly recommend that you create a new activity record from scratch rather than linking an old one to a new Pact. You can look in the bottom left hand corner of the model table to see the "last run date".
If you choose to reuse a record, you must at minimum:
Open the record
Refresh the model using the "Refresh" button.
Re-run the model outputs.
This ensures that the data you're submitting reflects the most current standards and avoids errors in your application.
Important note on models
The Trust Fund Managers place an emphasis on using the FieldDoc system to estimate sediment and nutrient reductions for your proposed work.
FieldDoc has configured the following models for your use.
➕ Adapted Chesapeake Nutrient and Sediment Load Reduction Model
➕ In-stream load reduction estimates
➕ Shoreline restoration load reduction estimates
➕ Stormwater performance standard - treatment depths other than one-inch
➕ Stream restoration load reduction estimates (Protocols 1 - 5)
To support use of these models and supplement external training opportunities to understand how the models function, we recommend checking out the Model Documentation provided in the documentation section. Here, you will find provide links to expert panel documentation and math that supports these models.
Step 5. Submit your pact to your Grants Gateway application
The pact must be submitted in FieldDoc and shared to the Grants Gateway in order for the full application to be considered complete.
On the pact overview page, click the Submit button.
Take the URL from the top of your Pacts overview page and copy it using your keyboard shortcuts (for example, CONTROL+C).
Open your Grants Gateway application. In the common application, navigate to the field that asks for the FieldDoc URL. Paste in the url from your FieldDoc pact.
Video Trainings
Use this playlist to walk through guided demonstrations of each of the steps listed above. This playlist is curated specifically for 2025 applicants of the Chesapeake & Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund.
FAQs - Creating an proposal
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