Publication

Adaptive Management and ESA-Driven Habitat Restoration in the Middle Rio Grande

URL: https://webapps.usgs.gov/mrgescp/documents/Marcus-et-al_2011_Adaptive-Management-and-ESA-Driven-Habitat-Restoration-in-the-MRG.pdf

Date: 2011/08/01

Author(s): Marcus M., Horner M., Blake F., Griego J.

Publication: Prepared for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by Tetra Tech, Inc., 66 p.

Abstract:

Understanding and managing resources in complex, interrelated ecosystems can require an extended process built around cyclic steps of speculation (including hypothesis formation), management planning, implementation (including experimentation), evaluation, adaptive learning, and improvement of any or all of the previous steps. The ability to formulate, experiment, and test hypotheses over a sufficient time that allows meaningful data to be gathered and evaluated can be the key to making sound resource management decisions. Models can help by providing mechanisms to evaluate the potential effects of policies, activities, or practices that are being considered for implementation. This is the repeating cyclic process that has been incorporated into adaptive management. Adaptive management cuts across these activities to provide a framework to formulate testable hypotheses regarding, for example, expected responses by habitat and populations to management actions, to model environmental relationships, to document consequences of management actions, and to improve strategies for better management.