Practical Approaches for Conserving Native Inland Fishes of the West

Abstract

The Montana Chapter and Western Division of the American Fisheries Society (AFS) hosted a symposium entitled "Practical Approaches for Conserving Native In land Fishes of the West" 6-8 June 2001 at the University of Montana in Missoula. The purpose of this symposium was to bring together fishery professionals from throughout the western United States and Canada to share their ideas and experiences about conservation of native fish in the region. As the keynote speaker, Dr. Bruce Rieman, noted conservation management of fishes is a discipline in transition with threats to native fishes increasing while management goals and our understanding of these systems are changing. Here, I present a brief review of that symposium and introduce five papers appearing in this issue that resulted from the symposium. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation graciously paid publication costs for this issue of the Intermountain Journal of Sciences in order to disseminate this information. Extended abstracts covering the entire symposium (Shepard 2001) can be found on the Montana Chapter AFS web site at (http://www.fisheries.org/AFSmontana/) under "Special Features," Abstracts from the Practic al Approaches to Conseryin2 Inl and Fish Species Symposium.