This Phase II project will complete the funding needs for the modeling and product components to revise existing priority protection and restoration watersheds for 5-7 aquatic species guilds and 4-8 priority aquatic species across the Grassland Ecosystem. The project will utilize and update the original model platform used to create the first priorities for the Great Plains Fish Habitat Partnership (GPFHP) in 2011 and utilize input from the Partners Council fishery experts of the GPFHP, which is composed of twenty state and federal agencies and nonprofits focused on aquatic conservation in the Great Plains as well as meet Grasslands Initiative goals. Benefits of the proposed outcome will be a broad consensus on input data for the analysis and locations for focused implementation of habitat conservation and monitoring to address the multiple goals of strategic habitat conservation. Without this analysis, the past decade of species and habitat data cannot be utilized to refine current priorities, nor could we leverage broad consensus among many organizations, resulting in less resolution, investment and buy-in for habitat conservation efforts.
