The present study is the first to use historical fish museum records and data from contemporary collections to examine effects of land use on warm-water fish communities over a large spatial (six watersheds) and temporal (15-40 years) scale. I used Geographic Information System technology and data from Halawakee Creek, Wacoochee Creek, Little Uchee Creek, Mountain Oak Creek, Mulberry Creek, and Uchee Creek of the central Chattahoochee River system to test the hypothesis that fish community structure is sensitive to land use in the surrounding watershed. I also collected in-stream habitat data to examine the relationship between land use and stream habitat structure. Land-use cover types (urban, agriculture, pine-monoculture, pine-hardwood forest, clear-cut, hydrography, and roads) were digitized from aerial photography I found a significant positive relationship between agricultural land-use and the in-stream sediment index (r$\sp2$ = 0.43, P = 0.01). Stream depth heterogeneity decreased significantly with increased sediment (r$\sp2$ = 0.39, P = 0.02). Substrate complexity tended to be lower in agricultural streams Mainstream (3rd and 4th order) Piedmont reaches draining agricultural lands had significantly lower levels of fish diversity (r$\sp2$ = 0.47, P $\leq$ 0.01). Land use was not a significant predictor of diversity in Coastal Plain or Piedmont headwater(1st and 2nd order) reaches. Agricultural land-use explained significant variation in mainstream core species abundances of Piedmont but not Coastal Plain streams Pool and riffle species that use coarse substrates (i.e. Nocomis leptocephalus, Semotilus atromaculatus) were most sensitive to the effects of agricultural land-use. Lepomis spp. were least sensitive to agriculture in the watershed Regional persistence and stability of fish communities over time were not significantly correlated with declines in pine-hardwood forest, except that the least stable fish community was observed in the watershed with the greatest decrease in pine-hardwood forest cover. Species showing signs of decline across all watersheds were Notropis hypsilepis, Lythrurus atropiculus, Luxilus zonistius, Ameiurus natalis, and Noturus gyrinus Results from this study suggest that mainstream environments and their associated communities are more susceptible than headwater reaches to the effects of agricultural land-use and this has important consequences for conservation