BLM (Montana/Dakotas) Aquatic Habitat Management

Description

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages the Nation¿s most ecologically diverse range of aquatic habitat for fish, wildlife, and invertebrates, totaling more than 150,000 miles of streams and rivers, over 3 million acres of lake and reservoir habitat, and nearly 13 million acres of wetlands. Properly functioning riparian and wetland areas are critical to sustaining ecosystem functions and services, providing local communities with clean water, habitat for terrestrial and aquatic wildlife, reducing erosion and improving water quality, and providing recreational opportunities. The BLM Aquatic Habitat Management works cooperatively with a wide range of constituents to develop strategies that provide protection for sensitive riparian and wetland areas as well as maintain or restore stream function and stream access to floodplains while supporting multiple uses on public lands. The program manages and guides fish and aquatic habitat conservation, riparian and wetland conservation, control of aquatic invasive species, aquatic organism passage, and monitoring riparian and instream habitat conditions and water quantity and quality condition and trends. The BLM implements monitoring of water resource conditions and trends to support multiple uses of public lands, including providing for fish habitat. Monitoring surface and groundwater quality, as well as identifying, promoting, and implementing best-management practices, helps to maintain and improve water quality and function of aquatic ecosystems. Managing riparian, wetland and instream habitat provides appropriate conditions for fish and amphibians, including special status, anadromous, and subsistence species, and other aquatic species. Supporting the preparation and processing of water rights filings assures adequate water is available for multiple use public lands management. The Program¿s participation in the Colorado River Salinity Control Forum collaboratively addresses sediment and salt discharge into its waters, and helps ensure usable water supplies for millions of downstream users of the Colorado River Basin. The BLM works to prevent the introduction, spread, and negative impacts that result from aquatic and riparian invasive species with local, State, and non-governmental partners. Among a myriad of invasive species that pose threats to water delivery and aquatic habitat health, quagga and zebra mussels are a priority. The Secretary of the Interior made a commitment to the Western Governors Association in June 2017, ¿Safeguarding the West from Invasive Species: Actions to Strengthen Federal, State, and Tribal Coordination to Address Invasive Mussels. The BLM's role is a focused effort on prevention through collaborative partnerships to inspect and decontaminate watercraft in concert with States. The BLM efforts on the lower Colorado River increases coordination with State management agencies throughout the West. The BLM continues to work with partners to fund and implement actions identified in invasive species management plans and habitat restoration plans. The BLM designs and implements lake, wetland, stream, and riparian treatments to restore and reconnect native and game aquatic species habitat on public lands and to enhance the quality and quantity of angling opportunities on BLM managed lands by conserving and restoring habitat and improving fish productivity. These activities include analyzing water resource data needed to maintain, protect, and restore water resources effectively, as well as applying expertise to assess and improve the productivity and resiliency of these resources on public lands. Data collected from these activities becomes a key component of the BLM decision-making process. The Aquatic Habitat Management enables the BLM to develop and implement program policy, carry out projects, assure adequate water is available, and maintain vital partnerships at all levels within the Bureau (BLM) to support multiple use and sustained yield on public lands. Management actions emphasize on-the-ground and in-the-water actions that measurably increase the health of fish and wildlife populations to sustain recreational and subsistence uses that enhance or maintain many local economies in the West. In addition, these actions reduce the need to federally list species and work to protect and recover listed species and the ecosystems upon which they depend, as per the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The Clean Water Act guides the BLM¿s uses of water resources, including water quality and quantity. The BLM will continue to work with cooperators, conservation organizations, fishing partners, and other stakeholders to focus on the highest priority habitat restoration and conservation projects. The BLM will also continue to conduct baseline inventories and assessments critical to many public land uses and ongoing monitoring programs, including emphasizing special status, sport, and subsistence species to enhance opportunities for fishing on America's public lands, in support of Secretarial Orders (SO) 3347, Conservation Stewardship and Outdoor Recreation, 3356, Hunting, Fishing, Recreational Shooting, and Wildlife Conservation Opportunities and Cooperation with States, Tribes, and Territories, and 3366, Increasing Recreational Opportunities on Lands and Waters Managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The MT/DAKS BLM has opportunities to work with partner organizations to accomplish goals of the BLM Aquatic Habitat Management that include, but are not limited to, such things as: 1. Development and/or implementation of watershed management plans. 2. Increased local capacity to protect and enhance water quality, promote water conservation, and sustain the present health of the watershed. 3. Improvements in the resiliency of ecosystems, communities, and economies in the watershed. 4. Improvements in the hydraulic and geomorphic conditions of streams. 5. Removal of invasive vegetation in riparian areas to enhance fish habitat, water quality and the physical characteristics of the stream. 6. Inventory, modernize and/or develop infrastructure such as culverts and diversion structures in order to improve fish passage. 7. Provide a forum for enhanced communication among diverse stakeholder groups along the watershed. 8. Conserve and enhance aquatic and riparian habitats for native and non-native game and non-game species. 9. Provide resources for recreational and subsistence fishing opportunities including increasing public access and infrastructure, such as fishing piers, for public enjoyment and outreach, education and job mentoring activities for youth, families, and veterans. 10. Protect and stabilize both lotic and lentic aquatic and riparian habitats. 11. Implement projects to reduce erosion, salinity and sediments. 12. Collect and analyze water resources data needed to maintain, protect and restore water resources effectively. 13. Inventory, assess, monitor, and improve aquatic, riparian, and wetland habitat quality and quantity. 14. Address the immediate threats from aquatic invasive species, including quagga and zebra mussels. 15. Influencing water temperature or improving the timing or volume of available flows at particular locations to improve aquatic conditions. 16. Monitor surface and groundwater quality. 17. Manage geospatial and biometric data. 18. Conduct baseline inventories and assessments critical to many public land uses and ongoing monitoring programs. 19. Engage citizen-scientists and students in monitoring and directed research of various BLM dependent aquatic and riparian species and their habitats. 20. Develop and assist with Aquatic Invasive Programs including: Mapping, Control, Prevention, Education, Data analysis, Modeling, Risk Assessments, Biosecurity, eDNA surveillance, etc.

Agency Contact

More from Bureau of Land Management