Projecting the Future of Headwater Streams to Inform Management Decisions

There is growing evidence that headwater stream ecosystems are especially vulnerable to changing climate and land use, but managers are challenged by the need to address these threats at a landscape scale, often through coordination with multiple management agencies and landowners. This project sought to provide an example of cooperative landscape decision-making by addressing the conservation of headwater stream ecosystems in the face of climate change at the watershed scale. Predictive models were built for critical resources to examine the effects of the potential alternative actions on the objectives, taking account of climate effects and examining whether there are key uncertainties that impede decision making. Results provide decision analyses that are (1) relevant to the management partners in question; (2) emblematic of landscape-scale cooperative decisions; and (3) sensitive to the practical consequences of climate change.

The successful application of structured decision making (SDM) requires the involvement of resource managers at each step in the decision. By involving federal, state, local and non-profit management organizations, the PIs ensure that the decision outcomes are suitable for all involved. Though they may identify a decision which is not optimal for each management organization, species group, or protected area of a given watershed individually, collectively results will be able to satisfy the regional objectives for headwater stream systems. All SDM workshop materials be found on the project webpage at https://sites.google.com/site/headwaterstreams/.