Defining Your Project - Project Planning and Management for Ecological Restoration - page 40

Objectives for Goal 1:
1. Establish three acres of mixed cottonwood/willow riparian habitat adjacent to Kaskaskia
Creek in the Cowden Preserve by May 2005.
2. Remove all invasive trees and shrubs from the Kaskaskia Creek corridor within the defined
project area prior to scheduled dates for the installation of native plants.
3. Eliminate the cowbird on Kaskaskia Creek in the reach from the Elmhurst junction to the
Arboga junction by 2008.
4. Salvage mature plants in areas to be graded prior to November 2004.
Goal 2: Reestablish the native fishery in Kaskaskia Creek on Cowden Preserve by restoring its
stream corridor and watershed.
Objectives for Goal 2:
1. Remove barriers to fish migration on Kaskaskia Creek by August 2008.
2. Add gravel to two hundred yards of stream bottom substrate to promote fish spawning in
Specht Creek (tributary to Kaskaskia Creek) by August 2008.
3. Eliminate stream diversions on Specht Creek by May 1, 2006.
4. Implement erosion control measures on all mapped eroding slopes in the upper Kaskaskia
Creek watershed by September 2008.
Actions are the measures that will be undertaken to achieve your stated objectives. Actions are
discrete tasks that can be used in the list of events included in the scheduling of your project
(chapter 2). An action should be directly related to an objective and should be specific and
feasible in terms of resources available (Margoluis and Salafsky 1998). Generally, it takes sev-
eral actions to accomplish an objective. The more complex an objective, the more actions are
required to achieve that objective. Proposed actions may include any site improvements, con-
struction of fencing, removal of vegetation, installation of plant materials, obtaining permits,
or organizing another aspect of the overall project that leads to the objective. Actions imple-
mented to achieve an objective can be monitored and evaluated for completion or meeting
the schedule.
For the Cowden Preserve example, the following action statements could be generated to im-
plement the above objectives.
Goal 1, Objective 1: Establish three acres of mixed cottonwood/willow riparian habitat adjacent to
Kaskaskia Creek in the Cowden Preserve by May 2005. Some actions include the following:
• Purchase the trees (three hundred cottonwoods) from a native plant nursery.
• Purchase irrigation lines, controllers, and so forth, and install them using volunteers.
• Hire personnel.
• Eliminate the weeds.
• Haul debris away from the site.
• Install an irrigation system.