Successfully rescuing historic environmental data requires collaboration at each step. Data owners typically play a pivotal role  in identifying historic data at risk. They also are needed to assist in inventorying what was measured, when, where and how often. This typically requires a site visit by IEDRO experts to work with the data owner to fully define the potential scope and feasibility of the work. This in turn allows IEDRO’s data experts to reach out to its contacts at various data archives to confirm which of those records remain unavailable in digital form. With the scope of the opportunity known, attentions can shift to lining up collaborators for financial support and crafting a plan for execution that includes imaging the fragile records and digitizing their contents. It sounds straightforward but it’s not.