Design Approach - Project Planning and Management for Ecological Restoration - page 69

Chapter 5
Design Approach
The outcome of developing goals and objectives and conducting a SWOT-C analysis is to develop
the project requirements, which—along with a risk assessment—create your project scope, a ma-
jor element in guiding your project design (fig. 5-1). In this chapter, we discuss four approaches to
developing a reference model for designing a restoration project: extant reference site, historical
reconstruction, remnant, and fabrication. Ecological restoration projects must have some form of
ecological reference for project design and from which comparison and evaluation can be con-
ducted. The use of a reference to develop a reference model is the most common approach for
designing a restoration project. Using a reference site incorrectly or not understanding the selected
reference site weakens the integrity of your project.
White and Walker (1997) propose four categories for reference sites: (1) same place, same time;
(2) different place, same time; (3) same place, different time; and (4) different place, different time.
The most common categories are the first and second, when it is possible to visit a site prior to
its damage (e.g., mining) or use a nearby site typically adjacent or nearly so to the degraded site.
Selecting a reference site requires the evaluation of several factors and an awareness of the his-
torical context of the site. Ideally, reference sites should have as many of the physical characteris-
tics as possible in common with the project site, which is sometimes a challenging task. Collecting
data at several sites might overcome this deficiency. In the final analysis, the task of data collection
from a reference site is to assist in the design aspects of the project. The reference model should
be considered a guide or beacon (Clewell and Aronson 2013).
Reference sites typically are mature; in some instances, it may be possible to collect data from
developing vegetation, which provides very valuable “midcourse” information. Species appear
and disappear from some ecosystems over the time it takes for a site to become fully developed.
A site will mature while reacting to several environmental stressors affecting the site (e.g., fire,
flood, animal activity). Responses to these stressors will change species composition, distribution,
and vigor. With sufficient time, additional species may become established as microhabitats are
created in addition to the plants growing in size and maturity. Collecting data from sites of varying
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