Get reliable science

One aspect of many habitat restoration projects that is sometimes overlooked or may be removed from restoration project activities given the current status of federal, state agency or other project proponent budgets is implementation of a statistically robust and ecologically meaningful monitoring protocol. In Nevada, the Nevada Department of Wildlife houses the Nevada Partners for Conservation and Development (NPCD). The NPCD is implementing vegetation, avian and species specific monitoring pre and post restoration treatment across Nevada using the Utah Watershed Restoration Initiative�s (WRI) example. In Utah, the WRI implements a state wide vegetation and animal monitoring program largely focused on habitat projects. Utah�s Division of Wildlife Resources has a long history of providing a variety of monitoring services to the various land management and private entities in Utah. Developing a coordinated and well thought out monitoring program provides a number of important services. First, this gives States an opportunity to provide leadership on habitat projects and encourages better communication with private and federal partners. Second, the monitoring program allows us to bring researchers, graduate students and undergraduates into habitat projects providing valuable, real world experience. Third, NDOW/NPCD is providing important project effectiveness information to agencies so that the best science is being used for a variety of land management decisions. Finally, by rigorously monitoring outcomes of projects, we can better guide future restoration design and implementation.