Summary

Description

In the Pacific Northwest Salmon Habitat Project Database Across the Pacific Northwest, both public and private agents are working to improve riverine habitat for a variety of reasons, including improving conditions for threatened and endangered salmon. These projects are moving forward with little or no knowledge of specific linkages between restoration actions and the responses of target species. Targeted effectiveness monitoring of these actions is required to redress this lack of mechanistic understanding, but such monitoring is, in turn, dependent on detailed restoration information (i.e. implementation monitoring). We created a standardized data dictionary of project types now being applied throughout the region (now RPA 73 in the FCRPS Biop) to assemble a standardized database of restoration projects. The database was designed specifically to address the needs of regional monitoring programs that evaluate the effectiveness of restoration actions. The database currently (2010) contains spatially referenced, project-level data on over 35,000 restoration actions initiated at over 56,000 locations in the last 15 years (98% of projects report start or end dates in the last 15 years) in the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, USA. 60 percent of projects report cost. Total cost for projects in the database with cost information is over 2 BILLION dollars. Data sources include federal, state, local, NGO, and tribal contributors. The process of database production identified difficulties in the design of regional project tracking systems. The technical design issues range from low-level information (such as what defines a project or a location) to high-level issues that include data validation and legalities of inter-agency data sharing. The completed database will inform efficient monitoring design, effectiveness assessments, and restoration project planning/prioritization. We are currently focusing on comparing completed restoration projects with datasets of ecological need including standardizing the way limiting factors/habitat concerns are described in salmon recovery plans, and then asking if projects are being placed to address these ecological needs. Pacific Northwest Salmon Habitat Project Oracle Database