Surface Water Management
Habitat Monitoring and Effectiveness
Monitoring is important for both planning and implementing projects that improve habitat. Status and trend monitoring supports planning efforts by providing baseline in formation, areas needing improvement and likely measures of success. Monitoring the effectiveness of projects tests whether projects perform as designed and achieve habitat goals and objectives. Implementation monitoring documents what projects are underway and whether the number of projects over time (the rate of implementation) will attain goals determined in the planning phase.
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Both types of monitoring may be part of an overall adaptive management framework. In a very basic sense, applying adaptive management to natural resources is an on-going process of decision-making and action that incorporates learning and adjusting based on habitat responses, successes and failures, and new information. |
Status and Trend Monitoring
Habitat monitoring begins with the current status of habitat. The County’s habitat monitoring program began in 1999 and is a quantitative, repeatable, stratified survey conducted in wadable streams, large rivers, estuaries and marine shorelines. Though obtaining similar information on habitat – large woody debris, pool/riffle sequences, shoreline conditions – the protocols vary by location.
Wadable Streams Survey
The wadable stream survey protocol (169KB pdf download)
Results:
Large Rivers Survey
The large rivers survey protocol (pdf) is embedded with the grant tasks and protocols for the County’s Centennial Clean Water Grant.
Estuaries and Nearshore
The County partners with NOAA Fisheries, the Tulalip and Stillaguamish Tribes and others to inventory and monitor habitat in the Snohomish and Stillaguamish River Estuaries.
Similarly, County habitat staff support the Snohomish County Marine Resources Advisory Committee (MRC) in habitat monitoring and evaluation. The MRC has partnered in several analyses on Snohomish County’s nearshore, such as the Intertidal Habitat Mapping Project, and the Snohomish County Nearshore Candidate Sites Analysis for Protection and Restoration.
Project Effectiveness Monitoring
The Project Effectiveness Monitoring program seeks to determine whether projects are meeting their goals and learn from what works or does not work. At present, the program predominantly monitors habitat restoration projects. However, the program will likely be expanded to include salmon recovery projects, provided funding is found to expand it.
Monitoring of this type typically takes place over a 5 year period and is different for each type of project. For example, a culvert enhancement project would monitor: damage to foundation or baffles, blockages, fill integrity, streambank stability, and problems or maintenance. As another example, stream habitat restoration project would monitor: pool formation, streambank stability, sediment, woody debris, and stream channel/scour.
View our Critical Areas Monitoring and Adaptive Management 2008 Status Report (2.8 mb pdf)
For more information on the program, contact Kathy Thornburgh, 425.388.3464 ext.3319.
Critical Areas Regulations
Critical Areas Monitoring and Adaptive Management 2008 Status Report (pdf 2.8 mb)
Appendix A Land Cover Classification for Snohomish County Critical Area Monitoring (pdf 2.46mb)
Appendix B Shoreline Inventory Status Report (pdf 3.04mb)
Appendix C Intensive Catchment Supply Status Report (pdf 885kb)
Implementation Monitoring
Implementation monitoring helps to determine who is doing what to reach habitat goals and whether groups or agencies are completing projects at the rate needed to reach habitat goals.
For more information on implementation of the salmon plans, see the Tracking Progress webpage in the Salmon Recovery Program webpages.