Full ecoregional plan - Conservation Gateway

• enact legislation that provides for the designation of freshwater systems as natural protectedareas, particularly for the few remaining most intact and unaltered river systems.• educate the public and policy makers about the biodiversity hidden from view in freshwatersystems and the cumulative effects of land uses on downstream waters.• promote conservation at the watershed scale, which requires cooperation and communicationamong multiple agencies with varying jurisdictions.• reduce water consumption though implementation of sustainable agriculture and restrictionson nonessential water use and reducing groundwater pumping in sensitive areas.• establish natural flow regimes in rivers by removing unneeded structures and modifying damoperations to resemble natural flow patterns.• work to maintain and enforce legislation to protect federally listed species.• prevent the introduction and spread of exotics into freshwater systems though publiceducation and vigilant monitoring and enforcement.• restore and protect riparian habitats by limiting grazing, promoting buffer strips, andrestricting or promoting compatible development near stream and lake margins.• work to reduce sedimentation associated with certain forms of logging, roads, andagriculture.• reconnect stream reaches and drainage networks by removing impoundments, removingunneeded culverts, or creating structures to allow the passage of organisms and organicnutrients.• remove flood-control structures in appropriate areas to allow for reestablishment of floodsand maintenance of floodplain communities.• restore and protect wetlands, which provide important filtering mechanisms for pollutantsand contribute organic matter to freshwater systems.• restore channelized streams to their original forms.• remove or reduce point sources of pollution.REVISED 6/2003AQUA-RESULTS-55