Promoting Successful Watershed Restoration: Evidence-Based Approach

Despite extensive efforts and large investments in restoration, the Chesapeake Bay is not experiencing the expected improvements in water quality or habitat for highly valued living resources.

A variety of explanations have been proposed, one of which is that we have not linked our restoration, land management, and conservation practices to rigorously gathered data on the environmental effectiveness of our practices.

We are conducting work to provide information on practice performance for restoration projects,  conservation practices, and storm water management funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Program.  We seek to identify which performance metrics have been demonstrated to provide the most useful information about restoration effectiveness, while also being practical to measure.  

This analysis will be used to suggest appropriate monitoring strategies and specific measurement protocols to track performance of NFWF-funded restoration projects and to inform selection of future investments in restoration..

We expect the performance metrics to serve as a communication tool that encourages responsive grants and promotes habitat benefits.

University of Maryland Research Team

• Margaret Palmer
• Lisa Wainger

• Laura Craig
• Catherine Febria
• Jake Hosen
• Kristin Politano

Virginia Tech Partnering Team

• Dr. Gene Yagow - Research Scientist, Biological Systems Engineering
• Dr. Brian Benham - Associate Professor, Biological Systems Engineering
• Erin James - Water Quality Extension Associate, Biological Systems Engineering

Chesapeake Research Consortium

• Dr. Kevin Sellner - CRC Director