Monitoring and Evaluation - Project Planning and Management for Ecological Restoration - page 208

regulatory or oversight organization. Often neglected but nonetheless important is the publication
of results. Published results advance the practice of restoration by sharing successes and failures
and are even more valuable when the data collected meet the rigors of statistical analysis, thus
allowing comparison by others with similar or contrasting conditions or sites.
Research Advisory Committee
Large, complex, and environmentally or politically sensitive projects may benefit from creating a
research advisory committee. This committee can assist in the monitoring aspects as well as facili-
tate communication between research institutes and land managers. The committee also enables
practitioners to explain management priorities and the acceptable adaptive management strate-
gies, allows for peer review and quality control, reduces redundancy, assists in developing research
priorities, and increases the links between research and applied science.
Evaluation
The whole purpose of monitoring is to collect data that can be compared or judged against the ref-
erence or some established criteria. Monitoring can be conducted prior to initiating the project to
document the existing site conditions. We have monitored groundwater levels over a year's span to
understand how the water levels responded seasonally and to provide us with a reference for deter-
mining elevations of the restored site. Monitoring of water chemistry is one of the more common
data sets collected for restoration projects, in addition to presence/absence data for various forms
of wildlife. Preproject monitoring can be a valuable task because it provides needed information
to compare with the postinstallation project. Poplar Island, Maryland, in the Chesapeake Bay, is
an example of a complex project with multiple factors that may affect the outcome of the project.
Preconstruction monitoring was conducted to have a reference from which to compare effects of
the project following construction and plantings (box 13-1). Preproject monitoring can also be used
to convince people that the site really was degraded prior to your successful project.
If properly formulated, the data collection regime will address the specific characteristics of the
project site that allow an independent comparison or assessment of compliance or attainment to a
specific criterion or set of criteria. Variances in the soil chemistry, genetic material differences, or
predation on seeds or plant material may alter the growth performance. These and a wide range
of other manifestations can, and often do, occur. Sometimes, this lack of performance may not
be obvious and is only detected after analysis of collected data. After it is discovered, it becomes
important to involve the appropriate team members to discuss the possible ramifications.
Tongway and Ludwig (2011) provide several excellent examples on how the results of monitor-
ing led to responses for corrections or reconsideration by their stakeholder sponsors. It is only by
monitoring and then evaluating the data that remedial actions can take place that will yield the
desired results. Another situation may be that an unanticipated event occurred and the outcome
is a normal result. In many cases, these single events will correct themselves with time, and a “do
nothing” approach may be appropriate. Alternatively, sometimes a reason for the lack of perfor-