The Monocacy & Catoctin Watershed Alliance (MCWA) recently had the pleasure of welcoming Nat Gillespie, Director of Trout Unlimited's Eastern Lands Protection Program, to present on the Conservation Success Index at our February MCWA meeting.

The Conservation Success Index is a GIS-based model that integrates fish data (from the Eastern Brook Trout Venture and other GIS data) to score subwatersheds; this helps to paint the picture of conditions of fish communities & subwatershed landscapes and prioritize protection and restoration efforts. Partners are able to update the CSI with updated and local data. Thus, there is the ability to track success , evaluate change, and see trends using the CSI. The CSI uses 4 groups of data: range-wide condition, population integrity, habitat integrity, and future security to prioritize restoration and protection. Additionally, there are five indicators per group.

The public can access the CSI by visiting the following website: www.tu.org/csi. Partners are encouraged to contact Nat Gillespie to integrate local data into the CSI.

To view Nat's powerpoint presentation on the CSI, please click here.