Water/Aquatic Integrity

> return to Landscape Features

Aquatic Integrity refers to aquatic ecosystem health on the landscape encompassing rivers, streams, lakes, and their connectivity. Water comprises 1.1% of the Crown of the Continent Landscape Conservation Design project area (Crown Managers Partnership Landscape Features). Aquatic Integrity is heavily impacted by many factors ranging from climate change to urbanization. While water comprises only a small percentage of the project area, aquatic health and water resources are critical to many species including native cold-water salmonids such as bull trout and westslope cutthroat trout. Water quality and availability also has a significant cultural, spiritual, and economic role for many Crown residents.

Orange Box - Driver: The indirect threats, opportunities, and other important variables that positively or negatively influence direct threats. Also called a “root cause” or “indirect threat,”, drivers are pervasive, underlying anthropomorphic activities or conditions that require policy level interventions to lessen their impact on landscape features. 

Pink Box - Direct Threat: Human actions (e.g., overfishing, urban development) or natural phenomena (e.g., wildfire) that immediately degrade one or more landscape features. Natural phenomena are considered direct threats when their relative impact is increased by human activities.

Red Chip: Indicates a ‘high’ level threat to the landscape feature, as identified by subject matter experts. These threats are carried over to spatial design optimization models if reasonable spatial data is available.

Yellow Chip: Indicates a ‘lower’ level threat to the landscape feature, as identified by subject matter experts. This is not to say these direct threats are not significant; rather the urgency/importance of addressing these threats are secondary to high threats.

Tan Box - Biophysical Factor: represent any factor (including, but not limited to traditional stresses) that connect a driver or direct threat to a focal landscape feature. They are used to show the mechanism of how drivers and direct threats affect a landscape feature(s).

Rounded Green Box - Landscape Feature: Ecological (e.g., species, community, ecological process) and Cultural (e.g., land access) elements that represents biodiversity or human well-being needs found in the Crown of the Continent LCD project area. Landscape Features are the units around which we set goals, carry out conservation actions, and measure conservation effectiveness. Landscape Features are selected by the LCD Leadership Team as representatives of broader Cultural and Ecological elements of the Crown landscape: we do not identify selected as ‘priorities’ or ‘surrogates’ but rather measurable units that are important to all stakeholders.

Green Ovals - Key Attribute: Attributes of landscape features that are important to the feature’s long-term persistence. Attributes are intrinsic values of the feature but also represent attributes we can measure and map and therefore provide opportunities to develop conservation strategies around. 

Black Arrows: show the influence over or relationship that each factor has to other factors. Some drivers may affect or influence other drivers and/or more than one direct threat. Likewise, a direct threat may affect >1 other threat, landscape feature or key attribute of a feature. Arrows inform on critical relationships among landscape elements and potential paths along which to develop strategic approaches for conservation intervention or investment.

— Following the Conservation Standards (formerly Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation)