Practical info for farmers, fishers and landowners in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin
A well rounded source for finding data sets and case studies related to Wisconsin (and surrounding states) lands and waterways.
In 2012, the Fishers & Farmers Partnership for the Upper Mississippi River Basin (FFP) contracted to
have a spatially explicit analysis of fish habitat condition performed using Geospatial Information Systems
(GIS). Spatially explicit habitat assessment models, such as the models used in this map book, provide a robust
interpretation of terrestrial and aquatic data and the relationships and influence of landscape activities (Martin et
al., 2012). Aquatic and terrestrial data were collected throughout the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB)
and modeled using Boosted Regression Tree (BRT) modeling and validated using an internal cross-validation
method (Elith et al., 2008).
The FFP, and their fiscal agent the Dubuque County Historical Society, entered a cooperative agreement
with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) for composition of geospatial data and printable map
books to guide conservation efforts throughout the basin. The UMRB is comprised of 139 Hydrologic Unit
Code-8 (HUC-8) watersheds and over 180,000 catchments (1:100k National Hydrography Dataset) and 12
different Level III Eco-Regions (CEC, 1997). The diversity of the landscape across the basin, and the sheer size
of the basin, poses management and prioritization issues when performing large scale assessments. The
production of state-scale map books provides a local assessment of modeling outcomes for distribution and
reference.
The data represented in this map book were derived from models, analyses, and data developed by
Downstream Strategies, LLC. and their partners (DS). Data were provided to PA contracted by the FFP to
serve as the Science Team Lead and Geospatial Coordinator.