Mountain resort communities in North America depend on tourism and recreation for their economic viability. Heavy recreation and other anthropogenic activities such as land conversion for development directly threaten mountain ecosystems. To maintain beneficial ecosystem services and preserve the characteristics that draw people to the area, there is much interest in setting aside conservation reserves. Historically, reserve networks have been selected in an opportunistic manner guided by local expert knowledge, but this method frequently results in networks that fail to be fully representative of biodiversity. More recently, systematic reserve selection tools have been developed for conservation planning at national or regional scales. This science-based approach has great appeal to local planners, as it has the potential to be very effective and efficient. Systematic tools have not been used for reserve selection at small scales and their merit in community planning is unknown. Here the authors present the results of a case study in which they used systematic software to select a conservation reserve network in the Resort Municipality of Whistler, Canada. They describe the Whistler area ecosystems and potential threats, and examine the suitability of systematic reserve selection tools for mountain resort planning. After considering factors such as the discrepancy between scales of planning and geographic data, data quality, and expected delays in designation of reserves, they suggest that systematic reserve selection tools should be used with caution, and only in conjunction with local expert knowledge.
