2015 Assessment of the Nation's Fluvial Fish Habitats: Promoting Conservation of Fish Habitats throughout the Conterminous United States

A goal of the National Fish Habitat Partnership (NFHP) is to assess condition of the nation’s fish habitats every five years to identify threats to habitats and opportunities for their conservation.  In 2010, the first national assessment was completed, and this presentation describes the 2015 assessment of fluvial habitats in the conterminous United States.  Both the 2010 and 2015 assessments were conducted using a landscape approach, and for 2015, we have taken multiple steps to enhance results such as testing for influences of landscape disturbances on stream fishes summarized within stream buffers as well as in stream catchments.  We have incorporated data unavailable for 2010 including nationally-consistent estimates of water withdrawals and mining activities and metrics of river fragmentation by large dams.  Further, while the 2010 assessment focused on fishes identified as most sensitive to landscape disturbances, we have tested additional groupings of fishes for 2015:  game fish and species of greatest conservation need.  Our assessment results offer unprecedented insights on condition of and limits to fish habitats, yielding new information that can aid in efforts to conserve fluvial habitats nationally.