Priorities > Vulnerability

Streams may be represented in their vulnerability to loss of existence, ranked on that basis, and that characterization used to assist in setting priorities for actions.
For example, an approach has been made that separates the basin's 42 trout-bearing streams into 5 groups, or quintiles, identified from lowest to highest in vulnerability.
Scores were assigned based on judgements of vulnerability as estimated from information such as watershed size and mean annual precipitation.
The table below shows the 8 streams assessed to be most vulnerable, for example, which includes 5 that are on the near-term priority list.

Streams ranked by vulnerability

The ranking by vulnerability of the trout-bearing streams in the upper Dolores study area can be downloaded.
The report "Climate Change and the Upper Dolores Watershed: A Coldwater-fisheries Adaptive Management Framework," 2017, hosts the ranking by vulnerability and also can be downloaded.