The Alabama Rivers & Streams Network (ARSN) mission is to study, manage, and develop our water resources in a scientific and comprehensive way to minimize their degradation, maximize their availability for all users, and restore and recover aquatic species.
ARSN is a collaborative network of biologists who conduct research and those who translate that science into action for public and private decision-making. We bring together federal and state agencies, utilities, private companies, universities and non-profit organizations, committed to clean water and healthy aquatic ecosystems.
Using a cooperative approach, ARSN partners study imperiled and at-risk species and restore their natural habitat. Our partners assess water quality, habitat conditions, and biological health in rivers and streams. This cooperation provides an efficient method to avoid duplication of studies and activities. These studies direct cooperative, data-driven restoration efforts that have the best chance for success.
ARSN partners focus on targeted watersheds across Alabama that are critical for protecting, restoring, and recovering biological diversity. These areas have been mapped as Strategic Habitat Units (SHUs) and Strategic River Reach Units (SRRUs) with the direction and support of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Geological Survey of Alabama.
These units are designed to create a focus for ARSN partners to direct effort and funding to projects that improve water quality and habitat conditions. The collaborative SHU approach helps recover populations of at-risk species, so they might be downlisted or de-listed from the Endangered Species Act.
ARSN partners ask questions that direct activities for the next decade:
Clean water means healthy communities and thriving wildlife. By taking a cooperative, targeted approach, we can direct limited dollars and research efforts to priority watersheds. This reduces regulatory burdens and creates cost savings through improved water supply and quality, all while protecting Alabama’s rarest species.
The Strategic Habitat Unit (SHU) approach to habitat restoration was developed in 2006, when aquatic researchers, biologists, and conservationists from across Alabama recognized the need for a coordinated effort to address the state’s aquatic conservation challenges. This collaborative mapping effort identified the critical areas where conservation efforts could make the greatest impact, leading to both our signature SHU methodology and the formation of the Alabama Rivers & Streams Network.
Strategic Habitat and River Reach Units for Aquatic Species of Conservation Concern in Alabama and Adjoining States.
Download the Shu Map here.
