Wetland Prioritization SCORTP 2005 (Top 25)

Idaho Wetland Conservation Prioritization Plan - 2005 IDFG identified a list of 200 candidate wetlands using coarse filter analyses of known wetlands in existing site conservation databases. Sites passed the filter if they were not entirely protected by official designations; were not entirely surrounded by federal land; contained more than minimal wetland habitat; previously ranked in the top 75 percentile of prioritizations; contained uniquely valuable ecological attributes; and were greater than 1 km2. IDFG prioritized these 200 wetlands by ranking each according to the sum of 3 criteria: 1) Wetland Types—the statewide coverage of ecological systems was used to measure landscape level diversity at a mid-scale (i.e., wetlands with the greatest diversity of wetland ecological systems were the most valuable); 2) Wetland Functions and Values—habitat function was measured by the frequency of known wetland dependent rare species (plants and animals) and globally rare (G1-G3) wetland plant communities, as well as whether or not the site contained known Class I or Class II ecologically significant wetlands. Recreational value was measured by the presence or absence of recreational opportunities (based on mapped recreational sites) and their proximity to urban areas; 3) Wetland Threats—Threats for each wetland were based on water quality, land use, watershed processes, and hydrologic connectivity. The top 25 ranked wetlands in Idaho are included in this dataset.