Process and Reality: Working with a Local Watershed Organization to Develop a Restoration Effectiveness Monitoring Program

A structured decision-making process was used to help a local stakeholder group select a watershed for restoration effectiveness monitoring. The process did not go as planned but nevertheless yielded important results. These included an increased appreciation of divergent goals within the group, an understanding of the effects of scale on monitoring, and a proposal (now funded) for watershed trend monitoring. Professional judgment of stakeholders proved more important than quantitative analysis as a basis for watershed selection. As a result of this experience, a modified process for conducting similar work is proposed.