Co-production of an aquatic and riparian vulnerability assessment
Vulnerability scores for cold-water fish habitat in watersheds of the Upper Rio Grande Basin. Pictured is the Rio Pueblo, New Mexico. RMRS, September 5, 2017.
Multi-state collaborative assessments are needed to address the ecosystem impacts of drought, wildfire, and other large-scale disturbances. Over the course of several years, Rocky Mountain Research Station, in collaboration with the Southern Rockies Landscape Conservation Cooperative, used a landscape design framework to develop a vulnerability assessment for ecosystems in the southwestern United States. They focused on riparian and aquatic environments and identified specific animals at risk. This co-development process involved a number of different landowners, managers, and scientists.
Throughout 2014-2017, Rocky Mountain Research Station and Southern Rockies Landscape Conservation Cooperative held multiple meetings and workshops with local, state, tribal, and federal stakeholders within the Southern Rockies Landscape Conservation Cooperative boundary that included parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. These meetings helped identify priority topics of mutual concern to be investigated further. The Rocky Mountain Research Station group carried out a literature review and analyzed spatial data to produce the vulnerability assessment. This expertise and data from the meetings were used develop vulnerability indicators for cold-water fish and riparian corridors.
The group found that high-elevation streams in the headwaters of the San Juan River, Rio Grande, and Pecos River have relatively low vulnerability for cold-water fish, while riparian corridors along the Rio Grande and San Juan River emerged as areas of high conservation priority because of high levels of exposure from loss of native riparian vegetation and high richness of vulnerable species. Their vulnerability assessment also includes management actions to implement in areas of high conservation priority. These include actions from the literature and suggestions from the co-development workshops.