This spatial data identifies breeding zones used by forest managers and forest genetic associations to manage provincial forest genetic assets. The data: * shows the boundaries of breeding zones * identifies the primary or target species within each zone Species are associated with certain breeding programs, seed orchards and progeny (descendant) testing installations.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Effective conservation planning relies on understanding population connectivity which can be informed by genomic data. This is particularly important for sessile species like the horse mussel (Modiolus modiolus), a key habitat-forming species and conservation priority in Atlantic Canada), yet little genomic information is available to describe horse mussel connectivity patterns. We used more than 8000 restriction-site associated DNA sequencing-derived single nucleotide polymorphisms and a panel of 8 microsatellites to examine genomic connectivity among horse mussel populations in the Bay of Fundy, along the Scotian Shelf, and in the broader northwestern Atlantic extending to Newfoundland. Despite phenotypic differences between sampling locations, we found an overall lack of genetic diversity and population structure in horse mussels in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. All sampled locations had low heterozygosity, very low FST, elevated inbreeding coefficients, and deviated from Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium, highlighting generally low genetic diversity across all metrics. Principal components analysis, Admixture analysis, pairwise FST calculations, and analysis of outlier loci (potentially under selection) all showed no independent genomic clusters within the data, and an analysis of molecular variance showed that less than 1% of the variation within the SNP dataset was found between sampling locations. Our results suggest that connectivity is high among horse mussel populations in the Northwest Atlantic, and coupled with large effective population sizes, this has resulted in minimal genomic divergence across the region. These results can inform conservation design considerations in the Bay of Fundy and support further integration into the broader regional conservation network.Cite this data as: Van Wyngaarden, Mallory et al. (2024). Widespread genetic similarity between Northwest Atlantic populations of the horse mussel, Modiolus modiolus. Published: May 2025. Coastal Ecosystem Science Division, Maritimes Region, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, NS.