Background
Around the region, groups like the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP) are identifying networks of protected watersheds to address aquatic conservation needs in river basins nationwide. From 2004 - 2014, SARP has successfully implemented 126 fish habitat protection, restoration, and enhancement projects. These projects restored fish habitats in 480 km of rivers, restored or protected 3,900 ha of riparian and upland habitats in priority watersheds, and removed or redesigned 7 dams or other instream barriers, restoring fish passage in 68 km of rivers. These investments primarily centered on restoring and preserving natural watershed conditions (e.g., natural land cover, natural patterns in instream flows) and related physical processes (e.g., groundwater recharge and spring flows, watershed connectivity, and sediment transport) that in turn influence the condition of fish habitats and the ability of native fish populations to persist.
Critically important to the success of these regionally-focused conservation partnerships has been the ability to facilitate communication and cooperative planning among local, state and federal natural resources management agencies, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders. This collaborative planning allows for identification of shared geographic (e.g., ecoregions, watersheds) and thematic (e.g., water quality, watershed connectivity, focal species) priorities and supports strategic investments and leveraging of available technical and financial resources, often allowing for significant expansion of the scope and scale of local conservation projects (e.g., extent of watershed restored and inclusion of project-based monitoring or applied research necessary to evaluate and improve restoration designs).
The Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership has implemented several successful case studies in multi-jurisdictional, watershed-scale conservation planning and delivery that have demonstrated holistic, integrated, and multi-species approaches to conservation of aquatic resources (Birdsong et al. 2015, Garrett et al. 2015). These case studies highlight the value of a watershed-based approach in assembling and integrating interdisciplinary perspectives and expertise (e.g., aquatic biology, terrestrial ecology, fluvial geomorphology, public policy, fundraising, advocacy) and in integrating formerly disjunct planning efforts such as state-based conservation planning activities that may only consider the portion of a multi-jurisdictional watershed or species range contained within that state. As the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership and Great Plains Fish Habitat Partnership expand this watershed-scale approach to other watersheds of the Great Plains, assessments and decision support tools are needed that help prioritize watersheds based on value in preservation of regional fish diversity and that help facilitate multi-species, watershed-scale conservation planning and delivery.
