Central Interior Ecoregional Assessment: Freshwater Analysis

Abstract

The Nature Conservancy of Canada recently completed a project to identify priority watersheds for conservation action in British Columbia’s Central Interior and Sub-Boreal Interior ecoprovinces. These watersheds will be focus areas for conservation action to protect freshwater ecosystems and species. Conservation planning techniques described in this article include determining conservation targets and goals, identifying these targets with coarse- and fine-filter approaches, and using Marxan software to identify priority watersheds for conservation actions such as land purchase and management actions. Methods to incorporate connectivity within freshwater ecosystems are also discussed, along with methods
to include climate change in broad-scale conservation planning. We identify 2257 priority watersheds within the Central Interior and Sub-Boreal Interior ecoprovinces, covering 33% of the freshwater analysis study area.