Slide 17 of 87
Notes:
A watershed manager must choose which of these natural and cultural areas must be conserved in a subwatershed in order to sustain the integrity of its aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and to maintain desired human uses from its waters.
While land conservation is most important in sensitive watersheds, it is also a critical tool for other types of resources. Each subwatershed should have its own land conservation strategy based on its management category, inventory of conservation areas, and land ownership patterns.
The five conservation areas are not always differentiable. Some of the natural areas may overlap among the conservation areas. For example, a freshwater wetland may serve as a critical habitat, be part of the aquatic corridor, and also comprise part of the hydrologic reserve areas. However, the bulk of the most critical areas are covered in at least one of these five categories.