Who's Asking?: Inter-Jurisdictional Conservation Assessment and Planning for Great Plains Fishes

Strategic conservation planning for broad, multi-species & multi-jurisdictional landscapes benefits from a data-driven approach that emphasizes persistence of all priority species’ populations and utilized landscapes, while simultaneously accounting for human uses and varying stakeholder and conservation priorities. This study presents such an assessment for priority fishes of the Great Plains of the United States. Using the open source software Zonation, Species Distribution Models for 28 priority fish species were created and incorporated into a prioritization framework that accounted for species-specific connectivity needs and current fish habitat condition. Multiple additional assessments were then produced that i.) identify distinct Native Fish Conservation Areas based on distance and compositional similarity of stream segments containing priority species, ii.) compare results of ranking species’ conservation values at the local (state) and global scale, and iii.) provide ‘bang-for-buck’ perspectives, emphasizing richness of priority species, at state and major basin scales. Together, these analyses are intended to help managers effectively allocate conservation actions with regard to imperiled fishes. Implementation of a landscape scale multi-species approach such as this complements traditional reactive, species-centric, management and restoration by encouraging cooperation and coordination among stakeholders and partners, increasing efficiency of future monitoring and management efforts.