Developing a resist‐accept‐direct (RAD) framework for managing freshwater fish species shifting in and out of political jurisdictions

Abstract

Freshwater fisheries management and conservation decisions are often made within local jurisdictions (states, provinces or territories) rather than at regional or federal levels. Local agency responsibilities include monitoring and assessment, the regulation and management of common species and invasive species, and the designation of jurisdictional conservation status for rare species. Conservation status is often inconsistent across jurisdictions (e.g. Mandrak & Cudmore, 2010). Inconsistencies in designated status can be due to real differences in populations and threats or due to differences in the criteria or data used for local designations (Faucheux, 2019) and lead to differences in management approaches across a species range. Additionally, North American freshwater ecoregions, watersheds and species distributions cross state, provincial and territorial boundaries raising the question of whether local-scale management addresses challenges at biologically relevant scales for species (Jelks et al., 2008).Local-scale decision making has not historically addressed regional-scale changes in species distributions (Paukert et al., 2021).

Case study: Applying the resist–accept–direct framework to an Ojibwe Tribe's relationship with the natural world

“…There is a long history of fisheries managers introducing new species into a waterbody in an attempt to establish a new fishery; however, this practice has fallen out of favour in recent history (Rahel, 2022). Although zhagashkaanaamikwesi, ogaa X zhagashkaanaamikwesi and ogaa fill a similar ecological niche, risk assessments in collaboration with jurisdictional Partners (Alofs & Wehrly, 2022) and potentially pilot studies would be required to understand how the introduced beings would interact with the existing ecosystem (Lynch et al, 2022). Aside from the risks of introducing a non‐native beings into the Chain (Karasov‐Olson et al, 2021; Lynch et al, 2022; Rahel & Smith, 2018), the ogaa × zhagashkaanaamikwesi have the ability to reproduce with other ogaa × zhagashkaanaamikwesi and with ogaa, which may compromise the genetic integrity of any remaining ogaawag in these lakes (Fiss et al, 1997).…”

Managing fisheries within a RAD framework: Concepts and applications

“…Alofs and Wehrly (2022) discussed a RAD framework for managing freshwater fish species whose distributions are shifting across political jurisdictions. They developed a decision tree that identifies resist , accept , or direct actions based on a species's status (i.e., Does the species historically occur in neighboring jurisdictions?…”

“…Applying the RAD concept retrospectively to coupled socio‐ecological systems can identify circumstance where particular approaches were successful and thus provide guidance for future applications of resist , accept , or direct strategies (Rogers‐Bennett et al, 2022; Smith et al, 2022). Ensuring that RAD concepts are actionable at the local scale will also support implementation of RAD approaches, such as through creating an app for managers to use when deciding which lakes to stock with walleye (Dassow et al, 2022) or developing a RAD‐based decision tree for responding to species migrations facilitated by climate change (Alofs & Wehrly, 2022).…”

Resist, accept, and direct responses to biological invasions: A social–ecological perspective

“…In this paper, we explore and attempt to integrate RAD into approaches for managing introduced species (see also Alofs & Wehrly, 2022). Our intent is to show how aligning these approaches can provide novel guidance that managers can use in more effectively addressing introduced species in the face of multiple and sometimes competing values.…”