Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

CEdraftreportApril2005Ch5StandardMonitoringPr.pdf

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/n009w6360

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  • This project, to propose an implementation strategy for standard monitoring protocols, builds on my Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Fellowship to support a study entitled Evaluating Cumulative Ecosystem Response to Restoration Projects in the Columbia River Estuary (Diefenderfer et al. 2005). The major objective of the study was to develop a minimum set of standard monitoring protocols to be used within each restoration project in the Columbia River estuary (CRE). The Biological Opinion, developed by the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2000, has encouraged the CRE research and management community to focus efforts on restoring impacted habitats for threatened or endangered salmon. A current concern is that the estuary-wide restoration effort lacks a uniform framework in which to evaluate the effectiveness of individual projects as well as the cumulative effects of multiple restoration projects. This report provides an overview of monitoring in general as context for this study; describes the background and restoration framework for the CRE; documents the development of standard protocols conducted during the larger study of cumulative effects of multiple restoration projects; proposes a technical and institutional implementation strategy, proposes a CRE-specific database and concludes with long-term implementation considerations. Chapter one outlines the context for standard monitoring protocols. It begins with a description of monitoring as a component of large-scale ecosystem restoration and describes universal objectives that apply to monitoring and evaluation programs. Second, it describes estuary restoration strategies common within the CRE and describes technical and institutional considerations for monitoring protocols. It concludes with examples of research programs across the country that use standard monitoring protocols. Chapter two explains the background for a restoration framework for the CRE. Currently there is no comprehensive, coordinated restoration, monitoring and evaluation program in place, but this has been recognized as an unmet need. Restoration is being conducted in a piecemeal fashion and only local and regional programs are in place, not a CRE-wide program. This chapter illustrates the institutional responsibilities for aquatic habitat restoration and the progress toward an integrated monitoring framework, describes restoration goals and strategies, provides examples of ongoing restoration projects, discusses management implications and concludes with the potential of standardized protocols to restoration projects in the CRE. The contents of chapter three highlight my role in working in a collaborative group effort to develop a minimum set of standard monitoring protocols. It describes my role in collecting relevant restoration literature, helping to design the protocol layout, taking minutes from a restoration managers' meeting, and highlighting my recommendations for future versions of the protocol manual. Chapter four is the main focus of this report. It describes a strategy I propose for implementing standard monitoring protocols. The basic components of this strategy are a proposed restoration taskforce, designed as the central hub of restoration efforts. It also describes technical and institutional implementation activities to consider when developing and implementing standard monitoring protocols. Chapter 5 describes and illustrates a proposed CRE-specific restoration project database in detail. It provides specific tools for different user groups and is intended to be user friendly and easily accessible. It is designed to be updated and maintained by the central taskforce described in chapter 4. Finally, the report concludes with long-term implementation considerations. These include reviewing the performance of restoration actions, implementing an adaptive management approach and contingency planning The contents of this report may be useful to those entities that ultimately will be chosen to lead a CRE-wide restoration, monitoring and evaluation program. The implementation strategy outlined in this report could be used as a first step in moving towards an integrated program that is structured around the use of standard monitoring protocols. Also, the proposed database could be used as a template for a restoration project database within the CRE.
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