Evaluation tools to assess recovery progress and the adaptation of future efforts.

Ecosystem recovery programs have a fundamental need for scientific evaluation. Evaluation outcomes are used to understand recovery progress, predict changes with changing climate conditions and dynamic socioeconomic systems, and provides the needed information for a sustainable and adaptable recovery effort. In the Puget Sound, ecosystem recovery is progressing, albeit more slowly than hoped, despite substantial investments made. Many monitored ecosystem indicators are not meeting recovery targets and salmon populations in the region show few signs of recovery. There is continued need for scientific evidence to improve clarity around critical decisions and ensure investments are effective and targeted to accomplish the transformational results needed for recovery. Integrating scientific findings into planning efforts helps ensure the accountability of actions, understand the effectiveness of those actions and investments made, and promotes the evaluation of recovery progress. Because linkages between recovery actions and ecosystem responses are complex, scientific evaluations of recovery progress can be very challenging. Most large-scale restoration programs focus on evaluating project-scale monitoring or use syntheses to address programmatic questions regarding recovery progress. While these approaches are common and provide information to guide recovery work at larger scales, alternative options exist for a more comprehensive assessment. This session will consist of presenting innovative, evidence-based approaches to evaluating progress toward ecosystem recovery, specifically the quantification of cumulative effects produced by multiple recovery actions across landscapes. Presentations will include the introduction and application of an evidence-based evaluation of cumulative effects in large scale systems, a flexible and innovative methodology for synthesizing and assessing the effectiveness of ecosystem restoration actions at various scales. The question and answer portion will focus on how restoration benefits are evaluated and discuss the role of these evaluations in addressing programmatic questions associated with the adaptive management of large-scale ecosystem restoration as well as natural management and policy implications.