County emphasizes watershed-based mapping to identify high-value conservation lands

Daniel Cowley described a watershed-based strategy the county uses to guide acquisitions: staff divide the county into 19 watersheds and subareas and apply GIS layers—stream health, salmon-priority tiers and riparian buffers—to map high-value conservation lands. "To guide the acquisitions, the county has divided in 19 watersheds and sub areas as seen in the map," Cowley said.