Ecological Restoration Monitoring, Maintenance, and Adaptive Management

Course attendees will learn simple, low-cost monitoring and reporting protocols that allow practitioners to gauge their progress in meeting project goals and keep stakeholders engaged throughout the restoration process. Participants will also be provided with specific strategies and resources for managing non-native plants, insects, and animals commonly found at restoration sites in the greater Puget Sound region and for responding to herbivore damage, conflicts between user groups, climate change, extreme weather conditions, and increasing requirements for seasonal watering. These principles and best practices will be demonstrated and deconstructed in a case study of a decades’ long community-driven restoration program, the Green Kirkland Partnership, in Kirkland, WA.

This class is part 2 of a two-part series, Community Driven Ecological Restoration: Implementation Essentials for Resilient, Inclusive Landscapes, covering the fundamental principles of ecological restoration and best practices for applying those principles in our increasingly dynamic world. The series is grounded in case studies of ongoing wetland, forest, and prairie restoration projects at Juanita Bay, Juanita Beach, Totem Lake and South Norway Hill parks in Kirkland.

The City of Kirkland is committed to creating a safe, inclusive, and welcoming community for all people as well as honoring the First People who continue to live here since time immemorial. This course will be taught through a lens of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging and will include resources and best practices for integrating this lens into our shared work.