Saskatchewan's woodland caribou range is divided into two conservation units, based on the ecozone boundaries of the boreal shield (SK1) and the boreal plain (SK2). The SK2 Caribou Conservation Unit is further divided into three administrative units: SK2 East, SK2 Central and SK2 West.The SK1 (Boreal Shield) Caribou Conservation Unit encompasses the rocky shield, sandy plains and many lakes of northern Saskatchewan. The SK2 (Boreal Plain) Caribou Conservation Unit encompasses the more productive mixed-wood forests and lakes of central Saskatchewan, including large areas of low-lying peatlands. While these two units represent important differences in ecological conditions (e.g., habitat types, fire regimes, landforms, etc.) and human land use and management (e.g., overall levels and types of land use, fire management, etc.), the boundary between SK1 and SK2 does not represent a population boundary, as caribou move freely between the two areas. The large size of the SK2 Caribou Conservation Unit (i.e., 109,717 km2) is not well suited for range assessment and range planning activities, given the large variation in ecological conditions, habitat types, land use, and natural disturbance regimes across the Boreal Plain of Saskatchewan. As a result, three smaller caribou administrative units within SK2 were developed: SK2 East, SK2 Central and SK2 West. SK2 West is further subdivided into two smaller management subunits. At present, the SK1 area has not been sub-divided into administrative units. Find out more about woodland caribou and what the province is doing to manage their habitat and protect their populations: https://www.saskatchewan.ca/business/environmental-protection-and-sustainability/wildlife-and-conservation/wildlife-species-at-risk/woodland-caribou-program

Salmon have a complex hierarchical population structure extending from groups of salmon at individual spawning sites all the way up to taxonomic species. These independently functioning aggregates are defined as Conservation Units (CUs) in the Wild Salmon Policy. A stock management unit (SMU) is a group of one or more CUs that are managed together with the objective of achieving a joint status.There are 69 SMUs containing 468 CUs. In 2022, eight SMUs units did not have enough information to provide an assessment. Sixty-one units were assigned a forecast. There are ongoing requests to represent salmon information for these areas. Salmon are assessed and managed at different levels for different needs. The layers in this dataset include administrative areas, stock management units, and conservation units.The data included is a shapefile containing a single feature class layer represented in point and polygon form, as well as a csv table (attributes) to present Stock Management Unit information in a simple, visual way.

Wildlife Management Units are used for a number of wildlife management purposes, like indicating the areas of Ontario where hunting open seasons and harvest quotas apply. Wildlife Management Unit boundaries are regulated under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act - Ontario Regulation 663/98, Part 6 as amended.

A Conservation Unit (CU) is a group of wild Pacific salmon sufficiently isolated from other groups that, if extirpated, is very unlikely to recolonize naturally within an acceptable timeframe, such as a human lifetime or a specified number of salmon generations. Holtby and Ciruna (2007) provided a framework for aggregating the five species of salmon (genus Oncorhynchus) found on Canada’s Pacific coast into species-specific CUs based on three primary characteristics: ecotypology, life history and genetics. The first stage in the description of the Conservation Units is based solely on ecology. The ecotypologies used in this framework include a combined characterization of both freshwater and near-shore marine environments, and is termed “joint adaptive zone”. The second stage of the description involves the use of life history, molecular genetics, and further ecological characterizations to group and partition the first stage units into the final Conservation Units. The result is CUs that are described through the joint application of all three axes. It is important to note that CUs are distinct from other aggregates of Pacific salmon, such as designatable units (DUs) under the Species at Risk Act or management units (MUs).CU Counting Sites: Salmon spawner enumeration data in the Pacific Region is stored and managed in the New Salmon Escapement Database (NuSEDS). The term “escapement” is used to refer to the group of mature salmon that have ‘escaped’ from various sources of exploitation, and returned to freshwater to spawn and reproduce. This data is assigned to a “Counting Site”, which may be a complete watercourse with a marine terminus, a tributary to a larger watercourse, or a defined reach within a watercourse that may or may not encompass the entire population but represents an index of the abundance of that population. CU Status:CUs form the basic unit for assessment under Canada’s Policy for the Conservation of Wild Salmon Policy (WSP) (DFO 2005). The biological status of a CU is evaluated using a number of metrics (Holt et al. 2009; Holt 2009), which indicate a WSP status zone: Red (poor status), Amber (marginal status), or Green (healthy status). A final step then incorporates all metric and status-related information into a final integrated status for each CU, along with expert commentary to support the final status determination (e.g., DFO 2012; DFO 2016). This information is used as inputs to fisheries management processes to help prioritize assessment activities and management actions.Note: CU boundaries were reviewed in 2020-2021 and have been updated from the BC Freshwater Atlas 1:50,000 scale to the BC Freshwater Atlas 1:20,000 scale. The CU boundaries were last updated in March 2023. Please be aware that CUs may be reviewed and are subject to change without notice.Please refer to Conservation Unit Review Requests-Form and Summary for a list of CU review requests that are ongoing or have been finalized.

This dataset is a combination of landscape unit, biogeoclimatic zone/subzone/variants and Cariboo Chilcotin Land Use Plan leading group type (PineGroup or FirGroup) that patch size assessments are carried out on. Refer to the **Cariboo Regional Biodiversity Conservation Strategy Update Note #4: An Approach for Patch Size Assessments in the Cariboo Forest Region** (see below under "Related Links") for more information on how patch size assessment amalgamation units are derived.

Standards Units for an opening represents desired soil conservation limits and stocking outcomes for the defined net area to be reforested. An opening may have one or more standard units. Standards Units may not overlap. Older records may not have standard unit maps available. Stocking standards represent legal silviculture obligations for harvested areas for the defined standard units. This is part of the Silviculture and Land status Tracking dataset, which includes tracking achievement of silviculture obligations on Crown Land

The dataset consists of maps detailing the boundaries of the designatable units for conservation considerations as defined by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) for species of Pacific Salmon in British Columbia and the Yukon. Designatable units represent geographical areas that support groups of individuals with a unique genetic heritage makes them discrete and evolutionarily significant units of the taxonomic species, where “significant” means that the unit is important to the evolutionary legacy of the species as a whole and if lost is unlikely to be replaced through natural dispersion.

A digital record of all Conservation Easements kept for planning purposes.This dataset represents all Conservation Easements registered with the Ministry of Environment. Clause 7(3) of the Conservation Easements Act indicates that for a CE to be in effect a copy of an executed CE must be provided to the Ministry. Receipt of this document is recorded in this Lands Branch database and an Agreement number is assigned sequentially. An interest, based on the CE, must also be registered with ISC. Currently these two datasets are not reconciled. Technical Details: Conservation Easements are meant to protect native habitat on lands in the Province. The boundaries of the native habitat protected under a CE may not coincident with the parcel boundaries. However, the CE is identified to the larger parcel boundary. It is this parcel identification the is reflected in this spatial dataset. The Agreement Number is included which identifies the filing number under which detailed information can be found in digital and hardcopy within the Lands Branch of the Ministry of Environment.

Landscape Units are spatially identified areas of land and/or water used for long-term planning of resource management activities. Landscape units are important for designing strategies and objectives to maintain landscape level biodiversity and for managing other forest resources. Landscape units are also used to initiate landscape unit plans, which provide direction on biodiversity, old growth forest retention, wildlife habitat maintenance and timber harvesting. LUs may also be used as planning zones for other stakeholders in addition to forest licensees and MOFR. This spatial view was created based on the selection from the layer LANDSCAPE UNIT SP, where the DATE OF RETIREMENT is null. Therefore, only current LU shapes are included in this layer

This dataset is a combination of landscape unit, biogeoclimatic zone/subzone/variants and Cariboo Chilcotin Land Use Plan (CCLUP) leading group type (PineGroup or FirGroup) used to roll up seral stage assessments in the Cariboo Natural Resource Region. Refer to the **Cariboo Regional Biodiversity Conservation Strategy Update Note #2: Amalgamation of Small NDT-BEC Units in Relation to Assessment of Seral Objectives and Old Growth Management Area Planning** and **Cariboo Regional Biodiversity Conservation Strategy Update Note #3: Definition of the Fir Group and Pine Group for Purposes of Seral Stage Assessments within NDT 4 of the Cariboo-Chilcotin** (see below under "Related Links") for more information on how seral stage assessment amalgamation units are derived.