Chapter 4 Habitats
crayfish. Taylor et al. (2007) identified the state of crayfish management (and crustaceans in general) and the challenges that face developing adequate management plans. A new World of Crayfish database (Ion et al. 2024) provides a comprehensive, large-scale, and amendable database that updates crayfish distributions. Surface water classifications are one tool that state and federal agencies use to manage and protect streams, rivers, lakes, and other surface waters in North Carolina. Classifications and their associated protection rules may be designed to protect water quality, fish and wildlife, or other special characteristics. Each classification has associated standards that are used to determine if the designated uses are being protected. The NC Division of Water Resources (NCDWR) has assigned some waterbodies in the state supplemental classifications. Some examples include: • High Quality Waters (HQW) or Outstanding Resource Waters (ORW) designation when they either have excellent water quality or they are a significant resource to humans or wildlife (NCDEQ 2025f,g) . The requirements to be classified as ORWs are more stringent than those for HQWs and in some circumstances, the unique characteristics of the water and resource require a specialized management strategy be developed (NCDEQ 2025g) . • NCDWR’s trout waters (Tr) designation protects freshwaters for natural propagation of trout and survival of stocked trout on a year-round basis. Trout water designations are used only in the Mountain ecoregion. In addition to the best-use classifications, NCDWR also monitors waters in the state to determine if they are supporting their use classification(s) and assigned use-support ratings. These ratings are published in the most recent 303(d) impaired waterbodies list (USEPA 2025b, NCDEQ 2025h) . Another conservation strategy is the listing of species for federal protection under the ESA and for state protection under North Carolina General Statutes. Chapter 3 (Species), Section 3.1.1 provides information about regulatory protections. Table 3-13 in Appendix 3 provides a summary of federal and state listing status definitions. 4.5.3.3 Statewide Priority Recommendations for All River Basins While much progress has been made toward understanding basic distribution of many priority species, especially fishes, information is still lacking on the distribution of some species, and population strength and trend data are rare. These gaps are especially pronounced among mollusks and crustaceans. Considerable knowledge gaps exist for freshwater mussels, and they are even greater for snails and pea clams. Likewise, information vital for effective management of crayfish is insufficient and such information for microcrustaceans (e.g., water fleas, seed shrimp, scuds) is practically nonexistent.
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2025 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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