Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Missouri
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Recent efforts by the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) have focused on landscape-level conservation planning but managers may not be aware of the diversity of conservation planning tools available or in development to assist them with conservation decisions, or how to coordinate their use to maximize effectiveness. The objectives of this project are to 1) Identify areas of greatest aquatic conservation value within and outside the existing Priority Geographies (PG) and Watersheds (PW) and PG network including priorities for creating or maintaining spatial connectivity of important habitats, 2) Work with the PW development team to identify information needed to make landscape-level conservation decisions associated with PWs and enhance managers’ knowledge and use of the various tools available, 3) Develop a decision tree or similar guide with supporting datasets to help managers coordinate use of existing tools to answer landscape-level questions. This project will help MDC and its partners identify important landscapes both within and outside of the existing PG and PW and Watersheds and target areas that would benefit from actions that improve connectivity within and among geographies.