In the process of defining important geographic areas for waterfowl conservation in the Atlantic Coast Joint Venture, it has become clear that the original concept and definitions of focus areas are not adequate to map and describe important areas for waterfowl conservation in landscapes where the habitats and conservation needs are sparsely distributed over large areas or in areas where the targeted activity addresses other conservation issues such as protecting water quality. In order to capture the conservation needs in the diversity of landscapes in the ACJV, we used a three-tier, hierarchical approach to mapping and defining areas. From coarsest to finest they would be planning areas, focus areas and sub-focus areas. Definitions for each of the three types follow. I. Planning Areas Waterfowl Conservation Planning Areas are large areas within a state or region that generally contain small patches of suitable habitats for waterfowl dispersed across the landscape. The boundaries of the planning areas are based on units used to plan waterfowl habitat conservation within a state such as watersheds or physiographic areas. These ecological boundaries may be generalized or simplified by using recognizable cultural or political features such as roads, county or town boundaries. The boundary description and justification for planning areas should clearly state the justification for the planning area boundary and identify the habitats within the larger area that are in need of protection, restoration or enhancement. An example would be the watersheds feeding into Chesapeake Bay. In this region, watershed boundaries are the logical units used to plan for restoration of wetlands and water quality. The justification for the boundary would indicate the importance of restoring small wetlands and buffers throughout the watershed to provide habitat and food sources for waterfowl during spring and fall migration and to improve the water quality of the bay. Large wetland complexes and river corridors within the watershed planning areas are identified as focus areas and specific wetlands are defined as sub focus areas. II. Focus Areas Focus areas are habitat complexes that are priorities for waterfowl conservation. Unlike planning areas, they are defined by specific continuous or contiguous suitable habitat areas. Criteria for focus area delineations are: 1. Regionally important to one or more life history stages or seasonal-use periods of waterfowl. 2. Developed within the context of landscape-level conservation and biodiversity. 3. Discrete and distinguishable habitats or habitat complexes demonstrating clear ornithological importance. The boundaries are defined using ecological factors such as wetlands and wetland buffers. 4. Large enough to supply all the necessary requirements for survival during the season for which it is important, except where small, disjunct areas are critical to survival and a biological connection is made.

Examples of focus areas are complexes of salt marshes and coastal bays along the coast or river corridors and associated floodplain wetlands with known importance to waterfowl. III. Sub-Focus Areas Sub-focus areas are specific, discrete habitat patches such as marshes, bays or islands within a larger habitat complex focus area (e.g., a specific salt marsh within a coastal wetland complex). Many focus areas may not need to have sub-focus areas but they can be useful to help describe specific sites for waterfowl conservation.