Listed Species and Species of Greatest Conservation Need
The presence of federally-listed threatened and endangered aquatic species and state and regionally-listed aquatic Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) is an important factor in evaluating the priority of a given barrier for removal or mitigation.
We compiled information on the location of these species using element occurrence data obtained from state natural heritage programs or similar organizations. These data were limited to aquatic species, specifically fishes, crayfishes, mussels, snails, and amphibians.
Methods
We summarized species data to the subwatershed level based on:
- Presence of federally-listed species using data managed by the state programs or species lists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
- Presence of state-listed Species of Greatest Conservation Need using species lists from State Wildlife Action Plan species lists compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey.
- Presence of regionally-listed Species of Greatest Conservation Need using a species list from the Southeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
- Presence of trout species using a combination of data provided from natural heritage programs and NatureServe, as well as data from the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture (EBTJV Habitat Patch Dataset, brook trout only).
- Overlap with salmon and steelhead Evolutionarily Significant Units / Discrete Population Segment data provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Northwest Fisheries Science Center.
Caveats:
- The presence of one or more of these species in the same subwatershed as a barrier does not necessarily mean that the species is directly impacted by that barrier. Likewise, it does not necessarily imply that the species will directly benefit by removal or mitigation of the barrier.
- Information on these species is limited and comprehensive information has not been provided for all states at this time.
- Due to variations in taxonomic representation of a given species or subspecies, not all species are necessarily correctly categorized according to the above breakdown.