The Western Native Fishes Committee: Past Accomplishments and New Directions

The Western Native Fishes Committee (WNF) was formed as a special ad-hoc committee within WDAFS in 2002 with the purpose of supporting conservation of native fishes and their habitats in western North America. Following its inception, WNF undertook an extensive effort to document the distribution and status of inland fish species and populations, and identify threats to these groups. Multiple disparate data sources from nearly all western states, provinces and several Mexican states were compiled to create a spatial database to house and disseminate 8-digit HUC information for over 250 taxa (available at http://databasin.org/). These include many native game- (e.g., Oncorhynchus clarkii spp.) and non-game fishes (e.g. Catostomus sp.) from across the West. However, we lack an adequate understanding of how well-publicized the database is or, how frequently it’s utilized by managers. One of the actions of the revitalized WNF is to promote the database and assess how frequently these data are utilized to prioritize database revisions. The committee is considering several additional actions and initiatives to better fulfill its mission, and will engage new members to reinvigorate the group. We invite interested participants to contact committee chairs and get involved in these initiatives or develop additional concepts.