Description: <DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;"><DIV><DIV><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN>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 “Species of Special Concern” in Alberta. </SPAN></P><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN>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><SPAN /><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><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN>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><P STYLE="margin:0 0 0 0;"><SPAN>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>
Copyright Text: Alberta Environment and Parks, Government of Alberta
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