Restoration Field Course:

Evaluation of the Success of Restoration Projects

ESRM490b, Summer 2008, A Term

1. The course consists of 10 field trips; each class starts at 1:10 PM on Mondays and Wednesdays and is over at approximately 5:45 PM.

2. One Project Evaluation is due for each field trip. (80% of grade)

3. Instead of a final exam, each student will produce a restoration site evaluation format. This will be a field checklist that is simple but sufficiently broad; a person of normal skill should be able to take it into the field and complete it without great difficulty. When filled out, the product should be an assessment that allows the success of the project to be evaluated and compared with other similar restored or natural sites. (20% of grade)

4. You will see restoration projects that are successes, failures, new, old, highly managed, and unmanaged.

5. You will learn skills. These will include plant identification, vegetation measurement, landscape setting evaluation, and others

6. You will develop a feeling for how to gauge the success of a restoration project by walking into it and evaluating a few key elements of the project.