Prioritising culvert removals to restore habitat for at‐risk salmonids in the boreal forest

Abstract

In the boreal forests of Canada, industrial development has resulted in the installation of thousands of culverted road crossings that act as barriers to fish movement and degrade habitat for native freshwater fishes. In view of culvert removals being expensive, prioritisation methods have been developed, but the efficacy of such methods has not been thoroughly investigated nor have they been tested on low‐gradient boreal forest watersheds containing at‐risk salmonids. The management utility of a novel GIS‐based optimisation‐planning tool to prioritise fish barrier remediation was tested in two highly developed watersheds. Region‐specific parameter estimates of monetary variables (e.g. budget, individual barrier remediation costs), barrier passability and biologically relevant information for species on conservation concern (e.g. habitat suitability, dispersal ability) were incorporated. Results indicate that for Arctic grayling, Thymallus arcticus Pallas, and bull trout, Salvelinus confluentus Suckley, a large proportion (~61–83%) of currently isolated habitat can be reconnected with low investment (~$200–$500 K). This study demonstrates the management utility of barrier optimisation methods for use in boreal watersheds, particularly as it significantly reduces the technical expertise needed to perform relatively complex optimisation analyses.

Does restoration work? It depends on how we measure success

“…; Roghair & Dolloff 2005;Petty et al 2012;Benitez et al 2015). To address these impacts, much progress has been made to understand and identify in-stream barriers, and to prioritize sites for restoration (Januchowski-Hartley et al 2013;King & O'Hanley 2014;Thorne et al 2015;King et al 2016;Maitland et al 2016) in an effort to increase connectivity in riverine ecosystems.…”

A Portfolio Framework for Prioritizing Conservation Efforts for Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout Populations

“…The complexity of issues facing species and aquatic ecosystems has increasingly led to the development of frameworks to prioritize management and conservation actions (e.g., Maitland et al. ; Mantyka‐Pringle et al. ; Roy and Le Pichon ).…”

Fisheries Volume 43 Number 10 October 2018

“…The complexity of issues facing species and aquatic ecosystems has increasingly led to the development of frameworks to prioritize management and conservation actions (e.g., Maitland et al 2016 ;Mantyka-Pringle et al 2016 ;Roy and Le Pichon 2017 ). Prioritization frameworks vary in spatial scale, scope, and the amount of qualitative and quantitative information used to formulate decisions.…”