The Prairie Streams and Fishes Collaborative (PSFC) is a geographically diverse group of fisheries professionals who share an interest in prairie streams and associated prairie stream fishes. Fisheries researchers and managers responsible for prairie stream fish conservation recognized the need for multi-State, multi-agency networking. Established in 2020, PSFC is a unique initiative that seeks to advance networking, research, management solutions, and synthesis for prairie streams ecosystems, using a combined virtual and in-person forum.
Prairie streams are a valued ecosystem that dominates the mid-continental United States from the Canadian border to the southernmost States. The Prairie Streams and Fishes Collaborative (PSFC) is a geographically diverse group of fisheries professionals who share an interest in prairie streams and associated prairie stream fishes. Fisheries researchers and managers responsible for prairie stream fish conservation recognized the need for multi-State, multi-agency networking.
This PSFC initiative provides an opportunity for unit scientists and their collaborators to think more broadly and offers a different suite of solutions to management problems shared by State and Federal managers. The organizers of the PSFC look forward to creating and sharing this new model for collaboration and synthesis that advances ecological understanding, and the ability to manage valued, geographically expansive prairie fish resources.
Established in 2020, PSFC is a unique initiative that seeks to advance networking, research, management solutions, and synthesis for prairie streams ecosystems, using a combined virtual and in-person forum. Even though individual researchers and managers are working within individual prairie States and making important contributions, the formation of a formal group for collaboration benefits all. Participants in the PSFC include researchers and managers from nine States (Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas) that are employed by State agencies, Federal agencies (USGS science centers and USFWS), universities, NGOs, and nine CRUs (Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming).
The PSFC seeks to create opportunities for prairie fish professionals to make new contacts, advance the exchange of information at symposia, and catalyze thoughtful discussions about future activities. In 2021, the PSFC sponsored a full day symposium at the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting in which individual researchers and managers summarized their recent work. In 2022, the PSFC organized a successful 2-day online workshop that facilitated discussions of relevant human dimension issues, policy and practice concerns, research priorities, research syntheses, and ways to establish an integrated database. Synthesis projects, perspective publications, grants, and additional collaborations are emerging from this recent workshop.
CRU scientists have played an important role in organizing and attending this collaboration (S. Brewer, Alabama; L. Bruckerhoff and J. Long, Oklahoma; D.Magoulick, Arkansas; M. Mather, Kansas; M. Moore, Iowa; J. Rogosch, Texas; J. Spurgeon, Nebraska; A. Walters, Wyoming; and D. Winkelman, Colorado). Strong CRU involvement with the PSFC merges applied research and ways to use data to advance solutions to management problems, which are two important motivations for CRU scientists. USGS scientists (D. Hu, N. Cole, P. Kocovsky, A. Hess, and M. Wildhaber) were pivotal to organization and participation of the PSFC. USFWS was strongly represented, as were multiple unit cooperators from each State.
The Prairie Streams and Fishes Collaborative (PSFC) is a geographically diverse group of fisheries professionals who share an interest in prairie streams and associated prairie stream fishes. Fisheries researchers and managers responsible for prairie stream fish conservation recognized the need for multi-State, multi-agency networking. Established in 2020, PSFC is a unique initiative that seeks to advance networking, research, management solutions, and synthesis for prairie streams ecosystems, using a combined virtual and in-person forum.
Prairie streams are a valued ecosystem that dominates the mid-continental United States from the Canadian border to the southernmost States. The Prairie Streams and Fishes Collaborative (PSFC) is a geographically diverse group of fisheries professionals who share an interest in prairie streams and associated prairie stream fishes. Fisheries researchers and managers responsible for prairie stream fish conservation recognized the need for multi-State, multi-agency networking.
This PSFC initiative provides an opportunity for unit scientists and their collaborators to think more broadly and offers a different suite of solutions to management problems shared by State and Federal managers. The organizers of the PSFC look forward to creating and sharing this new model for collaboration and synthesis that advances ecological understanding, and the ability to manage valued, geographically expansive prairie fish resources.
Established in 2020, PSFC is a unique initiative that seeks to advance networking, research, management solutions, and synthesis for prairie streams ecosystems, using a combined virtual and in-person forum. Even though individual researchers and managers are working within individual prairie States and making important contributions, the formation of a formal group for collaboration benefits all. Participants in the PSFC include researchers and managers from nine States (Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas) that are employed by State agencies, Federal agencies (USGS science centers and USFWS), universities, NGOs, and nine CRUs (Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming).
The PSFC seeks to create opportunities for prairie fish professionals to make new contacts, advance the exchange of information at symposia, and catalyze thoughtful discussions about future activities. In 2021, the PSFC sponsored a full day symposium at the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting in which individual researchers and managers summarized their recent work. In 2022, the PSFC organized a successful 2-day online workshop that facilitated discussions of relevant human dimension issues, policy and practice concerns, research priorities, research syntheses, and ways to establish an integrated database. Synthesis projects, perspective publications, grants, and additional collaborations are emerging from this recent workshop.
CRU scientists have played an important role in organizing and attending this collaboration (S. Brewer, Alabama; L. Bruckerhoff and J. Long, Oklahoma; D.Magoulick, Arkansas; M. Mather, Kansas; M. Moore, Iowa; J. Rogosch, Texas; J. Spurgeon, Nebraska; A. Walters, Wyoming; and D. Winkelman, Colorado). Strong CRU involvement with the PSFC merges applied research and ways to use data to advance solutions to management problems, which are two important motivations for CRU scientists. USGS scientists (D. Hu, N. Cole, P. Kocovsky, A. Hess, and M. Wildhaber) were pivotal to organization and participation of the PSFC. USFWS was strongly represented, as were multiple unit cooperators from each State.