Next Steps
Completing the goals will mark the end of a process to identify the types, amounts, and distribution of habitats needed to help ensure a healthy baylands ecosystem. Beginning this fall, some of the planning efforts described at the end of the previous chapter will begin to put specific goals recommendations into action. As the goals are disseminated, other interests, both public and private, will also consider using them.
The goals establish a very flexible vision for restoring baylands habitats. Because they are not a blueprint of specific projects, implementing them will require close coordination among landowners, agencies, and others. Restoration and enhancement projects will need to be tracked so everyone will know who is doing what and where, and as projects are monitored and as research is undertaken, the results will need to be made readily available. Without some kind of framework to ensure good communication it will be impossible for restoration to move forward efficiently.
Poor coordination of restoration efforts could result in many kinds of problems. For example, planning for a particular tidal marsh project might not take into account the need for concomitant enhancement of nearby seasonal pond habitat. Or, several tidal marsh projects might be undertaken concurrently in a segment of the estuary where there is insufficient suspended sediment. Or, two groups of scientists might unknowingly and unnecessarily duplicate research efforts.
It is clear that we need to establish a process of effective communication and coordination among dozens of entities that will implement the goals recommendations. From the outset of the Goals Project, and in keeping with the Estuary Project's Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan, the RMG has envisioned that this would be done as part of developing a regional wetlands plan.
The goals are long-term recommendations that will take decades to implement. In preparing them, Project participants developed a detailed view of the estuary's historical and existing habitat conditions and a better understanding of the habitat needs of the key baylands species. In the future, as additional ecological planning work is done, as wetlands projects are undertaken, and as scientific information on restoration techniques and species needs improves, the goals will need to be revisited periodically. This should be undertaken by the RMG or its successor on a regular basis, perhaps every five years or so, and the procedures for doing this could be established in the regional wetlands plan.
