Western Fish Habitat Partnerships: Western Aquatic Habitat Data Confusion

Since 2006, with the advent of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan, there has been a concerted effort to address western fish habitats by numerous recognized National Fish Habitat Partnerships.  The Western Native Trout Initiative, the Desert Fish Habitat Partnership, the California Fish Passage Forum, the Reservoir Fisheries Habitat Partnership, the Candidate Pacific Marine and Estuarine Habitat Partnership, and the Candidate North American Salmon Stronghold rely on both fish population information, habitat evaluation and expert opinion analyses to aid in priority decision making.  The 2010 National assessment paints an overly optimistic picture of the state of western aquatic habitats due to limited spatial data describing stream-flow alterations and withdrawals, connectivity barriers, reservoir fluctuations, and cattle grazing. The Western fish habitat partnerships rely on locally developed habitat analysis protocols to describe habitat conditions and priority watersheds.  These efforts include the western native trout Intermountain Cutthroat Protocol (ICP), the National Reservoir Habitat Impairment Study, a University of Missouri Threat Index and Spatial Prioritization of watersheds based on species occupying the Lower Colorado River Basin and the Conservation Success Index developed by Trout Unlimited. The California Fish Passage Forum currently maintains biological, habitat, site, and condition information for thousands of barriers to migration in the Passage Assessment Database. The North American Salmon Stronghold in conjunction with The Nature Conservancy developed a Regional Habitat Assessment tool for watershed and fish population function in 2007. Each Fish Habitat partnership uses a mix of scientific data collection, spatial mapping, and "scientific opinion" to prioritize fish  habitats for protection and maintenance of ecological function and health.  The Western Native Trout Initiative is working to standardize the ICP data collection and storage across all cutthroat species while also ensuring compatibility with the national framework.  The compatibility of the other partnerships habitat analyses and data collection efforts is less clear.  Future success depends upon sufficient funding for expansion of variables considered to be included in the second National Fish Habitat Assessment effort.