A new online tool is now available to help estuary and wetland managers plan and strategize their restoration projects: www.tidalmarshmonitoring.org.

The new website is a joint effort of the National Wildlife Refuge System's Pacific Region Inventory and Monitoring Program, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's Estuary and Salmon Restoration Program, Nisqually Natinoal Wildlife Refuge, the Nisqually Indian Tribe and the USGS Western Ecological Research Center.

The tool was created out of the growing need for a more standardized monitoring approach among restoration projects throughout the western United States. WERC scientists John Takekawa, Kelley Turner and colleagues supervised the content compilation for the new website.

This site serves as an online handbook for tidal marsh restoration practitioners. But rather than a print textbook, the site will serve as a “living document" to be updated with improved and new methods, as they are developed by the restoration science community.

Resources on the website include:

• Steps on designing a monitoring plan with downloadable examples
• Details on over 40 physical, biological, and ecological monitoring methods
• Method comparisons by monitoring group (e.g. hydrology, sedimentation, birds, vegetation)
• Slideshow summaries of monitoring methods
• Downloadable, step-by-step SOPs, datasheets, database templates, and manuals
• Monitoring discussion forum
• Over 100 downloadable references

The National Wildlife Refuge System's Pacific Region Inventory and Monitoring Program provided initial funds to develop and launch the site. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife's Estuary and Salmon Restoration Program (ESRP) contributed funds for the maintenance of the site.

-- Ben Young Landis