Multispecies and Watershed Approaches to Freshwater Fish Conservation: Science, Planning, and Implementation - Symposium
Tampa AFS 2017
The high diversity of freshwater fish communities coupled with the degradation of fish habitats and declines in populations of native freshwater fishes necessitates the development of innovative multispecies and watershed approaches to freshwater fish conservation. This symposium led off with a paper discussing how multispecies and watershed approaches to fish conservation improve upon historical single-species (ESA) and terrestrial-based habitat (National Wildlife Refuges) conservation. This was followed by several presentations on aquatic conservation assessment applications showing how existing protected areas represent fish diversity in Missouri, prioritization of Hawaii’s ecosystems for conservation, and identifying Native Fish Conservation Areas (NFCAs) across Texas and the Great Plains. Other presentations highlighted conservation assessments being used to deliver on-the-ground conservation, such as how NFCAs identified in Texas are being used to coalesce conservation funding within and across agencies to operationalize conservation in specific watersheds. The symposium closed with a presentation on the successful restoration of native Westslope Cutthroat Trout in over 100 kilometers of habitat in the Cherry Creek watershed of Montana. The symposium will be published as a book by AFS that will highlight symposium papers as well as provide a series of vignettes on the science, planning, and delivery of multispecies and watershed conservation for freshwater fishes.