{ "culture": "en-US", "name": "", "guid": "", "catalogPath": "", "snippet": "The Bull Trout (BLTR) Zone define hydrologic units that form a standardized baseline, which covers the home range of Bull trout in Alberta. Watersheds originate from two sources of data. (1) Fish and Wildlife Management Information System (FWMIS) survey information, where occurrence (FWMIS location) of identified and measured Bull trout intersect with (2) Hydrologic Unit Coded (HUC 8) Watersheds of Alberta. These standard units are based on hydrologic principles (flow direction) and have been reconciled between and within the feature classes that form the dataset. Existing high-resolution watersheds or catchment polygons have been collated into larger watershed units to achieve the hierarchical, nested polygon dataset structure.", "description": "

The official fish of Alberta, Bull trout are native trout with the largest natural distribution of all trout in the province. Bull trout are classified as Threatened under Alberta's Wildlife Act; over-harvesting led to a decline in population. Protection from angling may result in recovery, but that may be countered by habitat degradation, and competition from introduced species. Considered a \u201cSpecies of Special Concern\u201d in Alberta. <\/SPAN><\/P>

Historically, Bull trout were abundant in at least 60 mountain and foothill watersheds in Alberta, with large fish reported downstream of the mountains and foothills in most major Alberta rivers. Several watersheds on the fringe of the core Bull trout ranges in the foothills may have held Bull trout, but likely at low densities or as intermittent populations as natural conditions of warm water or inconsistent groundwater were likely limiting. As of 2014, Bull trout populations in only 7 watersheds were assessed as healthy. The populations of Bull trout in 20 watersheds have been lost, as well as those portions of populations that seasonally occupied the lower mainstems of the Peace, Athabasca, North Saskatchewan, Red Deer, and Bow rivers. The majority of Bull trout watersheds were assessed as having either low or very low abundance of adult fish, with the lowest densities assessed in the most heavily developed watersheds.<\/SPAN>Bull trout are classified as Sensitive in the current General Status of Alberta Wild Species report. Bull trout are also classified as Threatened under Alberta's Wildlife Act; protective regulations under this Act that apply to fish species are under development. See information on Species at Risk.<\/SPAN><\/P>

The Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) Watersheds of Alberta represents a collection of four nested hierarchically structured drainage basin feature classes that have been created using the Hydrologic Unit Code system of classification developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) with accommodation to reflect the pre-existing Canadian classification system. The pour points associated with the delineation of these watersheds have also been included as a point feature class. The HUC Watersheds of Alberta consist of successively smaller hydrologic units that nest within larger hydrologic units, resulting in a hierarchal grouping of alphanumerically coded watersheds feature classes. These nesting watersheds feature classes were created using ArcHydro Tools v.2 (Alberta Environment and Parks) and are subject to periodic review and update. There are currently individual feature classes for HUC 2 (coarsest level), HUC 4, HUC 6, HUC 8 and HUC 10 (finest level). <\/SPAN><\/P>

This dataset is produced for the Government of Alberta and is available to the general public. Please consult the Distribution Information of this metadata for the appropriate contact to acquire this dataset. <\/SPAN><\/P><\/DIV><\/DIV><\/DIV>", "summary": "The Bull Trout (BLTR) Zone define hydrologic units that form a standardized baseline, which covers the home range of Bull trout in Alberta. Watersheds originate from two sources of data. (1) Fish and Wildlife Management Information System (FWMIS) survey information, where occurrence (FWMIS location) of identified and measured Bull trout intersect with (2) Hydrologic Unit Coded (HUC 8) Watersheds of Alberta. These standard units are based on hydrologic principles (flow direction) and have been reconciled between and within the feature classes that form the dataset. Existing high-resolution watersheds or catchment polygons have been collated into larger watershed units to achieve the hierarchical, nested polygon dataset structure.", "title": "Bull Trout (BLTR) Zone", "tags": [ "Salmonid", "BLTR", "Bull trout", "boundary", "native trout zone", "watershed", "HUC", "inlandWaters", "geoscientificInformation" ], "type": "", "typeKeywords": [], "thumbnail": "", "url": "", "minScale": 150000000, "maxScale": 5000, "spatialReference": "", "accessInformation": "Alberta Environment and Parks, Government of Alberta", "licenseInfo": "

General Public: This digital data is protected under copyright to the Government of Alberta with all rights reserved and is subject to the conditions outlined in the Informatics Branch License Agreement for Digital Data. Government of Alberta Ministries: Government of Alberta Ministries and authorized agencies may conditionally use this data for internal business purposes which includes conditional sharing of the data with other third parties (i.e. contractors, stakeholders) if necessary for reasonable use of the data relating to the provision of services to the Crown as represented by each Ministry.<\/SPAN><\/P>

Boundaries are subject to change without notice, as new survey information becomes available through the Fish and Wildlife Management Information System.<\/SPAN><\/P><\/DIV><\/DIV><\/DIV>", "portalUrl": "" }