Breaking ground: The development and implementation of an applied adaptive management strategy

Assessment of restoration project success in the Tahoe Basin has been limited by lack of a practical process by which to plan, implement and monitor those projects. Further, robust monitoring is not currently required by any of the regulatory agencies. There are a number of projects that are beginning to address this situation. The Lahontan Regional Water Control Board along with a number of ski resorts and the USFS have developed an adaptive management program that has begun to apply adaptive management principles to drastically disturbed upland sites in Tahoe and through the Sierra Nevada. This and associated programs are beginning to tackle such issues and monitoring techniques, definition of function within the restoration context. In this paper, we discuss ecosystem function, disruption of that function, techniques that are being employed to restore that function and tools and metrics that are being used to measure that function both prior to and following restoration treatment. We also discuss the application of those measurements to the development of quantitative success criteria and to other ecosystem restoration efforts. Of significant note is the application of this approach to the development of sediment and pollutant reduction strategies for the Lake Tahoe TMDL efforts.