Stream Fish Occupancy - Waterton Lakes - Freshwater

Freshwater fishes are some of the most imperiled taxa worldwide as evident by the number of threatened and endangered species. For example, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife (COSEWIC) in Canada has listed bull trout (BLTR, Saskatchewan - Nelson Rivers populations) as “threatened” and westslope cutthroat trout (WSCT, Saskatchewan - Nelson Rivers populations) have been listed as threatened under the Species at Risk Act (SARA Schedule 1). Parks Canada developed an occupancy monitoring protocol to understand the relative distribution of both native and nonnative species, and to track these distributions over time. This occupancy survey program is being used to track replacement and/or displacement of our native species and could potentially track the efficacy of restoration projects.