SWIM_PriortyWatersheds

The Service Watershed Investment Map (SWIM) identifies watersheds in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s North Atlantic-Appalachian Region (Service) where aquatic connectivity restoration can be expected to have the greatest benefits for Service trust species and habitats that are most affected by aquatic connectivity issues, including several species of diadromous fish, Eastern brook trout, and at-risk freshwater fish and mussel species. It is intended to inform the aquatic connectivity work of the Service. While the SWIM was not developed with the intention of guiding the work of states or partners, we are currently working with State natural resource agencies on aquatic connectivity efforts in 80-90% of watersheds presently identified in the SWIM. How will the SWIM benefit the Service? * Provides a starting point to determine where we can combine efforts with existing and new partners. * Allows the Service to focus our development of aquatic connectivity projects and deliver resources to projects in strategic areas. * Enables the Service’s multiple conservation programs to collectively invest in strategic projects. * Facilitates leveraging capacity across Service programs and supports communication. How can the SWIM help inform Service conservation actions and investments?Connectivity restoration can be more efficient and effective when concentrated on multiple barriers within a single watershed, rather than scattered across many. Service programs across the region can use the SWIM to focus aquatic connectivity investments and achieve a collective "lift" in these important places, though it’s likely that these will not be the only places where we work. Each Service program can decide how it will use the SWIM to target funding, staff time, and other resources to improve aquatic connectivity in these areas. The map can also be used in communications with external partners, such as state fish and wildlife agencies, to convey Service priorities and as a starting point for determining where we can combine efforts with other groups and where we may want to “divide and conquer.” How was the SWIM developed? * We took a region wide and multistate approach by using a combination of sources that included state data and expertise. * The Nature Conservancy’s Atlantic Coast Whole System Diadromous Fish Prioritization, the Lotic Cores of Nature’s Network, and at-risk species distributions that were previously developed with states and partners were among the initial data sources used to form some of these initial watershed prioritizations. * However, acknowledging that these resources did not represent all of the valuable data and expertise available, Service staff from around the Region were then asked to use their knowledge and more localized data to refine the watershed investment map. * Criteria for selecting watersheds included: * Identification of watersheds that had high habitat quality and/or species presence, particularly for Service priority species most affected by aquatic connectivity. * Of those locations, they were the places where aquatic connectivity work is likely to have the biggest impacts for Service priority species affected by aquatic connectivity. * The analysis was based on the assumption that watersheds of high importance to priority aquatic species and of high ecological integrity should be priorities for restoration of aquatic connectivity to improve access to these areas and provide even more habitat benefits. An alternative approach, not used here, could be to focus restoration of aquatic connectivity on degraded watersheds to improve the habitat conditions in these areas. Aquatic connectivity experts who participated in the identification of these watersheds, however, believed that a focus on opening access to watersheds of high ecological integrity was prudent.