Science and Strategies for Conservation of Land and Stream Flows Through Acquisition, Exchange and Other Financial Incentives

Climate change and other anthropogenic impacts threaten the integrity of our rivers and coasts.  Even with aggressive efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, climate change will affect the many valuable services and jobs that healthy fish and wildlife habitats provide. With other factors like increased development and population growth compounding the projected effects, the conservation community will need to expand its arsenal of tools for protecting fisheries resources, endangered species, and human uses for the near- and long- term.  This symposium will explore how conservation of land and water through acquisition, exchange and other financial incentives can be used strategically with best available science to protect our nation’s fisheries resources.

Financial instruments such as land acquisitions (e.g., fee-simple purchases or easements) are increasingly being used as a mechanism for conserving subtidal, shoreline, and riverine habitats for fisheries.  Land-use planning often couples acquisition with active restoration to protect and restore suitable habitats for injured or at risk resources.

Complementing efforts to protect and restore land is the concept of environmental flows, or the provision of water within rivers to conserve freshwater biodiversity while maintaining the water needs of human society.  Environmental flows can be protected and restored through providing financial incentives to leave water instream rather than diverting for out of stream needs. Market-based stream flow restoration has a relatively long history in places like Australia and the western United States and is increasingly being recognized as a critical tool for maintaining water for endangered species, fisheries, or for water quality purposes.

This symposium will include presentations from multiple geographic, scientific, and socio-economic perspectives. Individual presentations will cover topics issues such as strategic approaches to acquisition actions, bridging the chasm between land and water conservation, market-based approaches to instream flow management, monitoring environmental flow transactions, and the science underpinning these approaches.