MANAGEMENT ACTIONS
Management Action 1:
Develop ecosystem protection and restoration plans (basinwide ecosystem plans) for each river basin in the region. Individual basinwide ecosystem plans will be completed and implemented according to the schedule established for basinwide water quality management plans.
Plans should establish coordinated priorities for protecting habitats and critical areas in each basin, and should target areas most vital to the survival of wildlife and fisheries and the protection of natural heritage.
Management Action 2:
Develop and maintain accurate maps and records of wetlands, fisheries habitats, federal and state endangered species and their habitats, natural areas, and natural communities.
Management Action 3:
Expand programs to identify wetlands on a regional scale and to evaluate and rank wetland function.
Object A:
Promote Regional Planning to Protect and Restore the Natural Heritage of the APES Region
Strategy: Regional planning would guide the acquisition, protection and restoration of vital habitats. Plans would include goals for ensuring that protection efforts do not become fragmented but are consolidated and targeted toward regional needs for the survival of wildlife and fisheries and the protection of natural heritage. Ecosystem plans would be developed for each major drainage basin in the region. This approach would consider the value of each site proposed for protection at the watershed and regional levels. Plans would consider important ecological processes as well as regional economic activities which rely on those processes at the landscape scale. Plans would also consider broader watershed protection goals, management strategies such as protected corridors and buffers, and basinwide water quality planning initiatives. Maps of the region's vital habitats and land uses, such as Figure 20 showing ecologically significant natural communities rare species, would be completed and updated in order to develop basin-specific ecosystem plans.