Conservation and land protection are essential to maintaining natural resilience. Protecting intact forests, wetlands, floodplains, riparian areas, tributaries, and groundwater recharge areas preserves the systems already storing and moving water across the landscape. Restoration is important where these systems have been degraded, but protecting healthy landscapes before those functions are lost is equally important. Strategic land conservation can also protect connections across a watershed, giving rivers room to move and natural systems the space they need to respond to changing conditions.