Review the Project
We increase success in just about anything we do if we schedule regular reviews to adjust for any changed conditions and critically examine progress. When objective third parties can be included in the process, even more can be gained. Reviews should be o
- PDF / 185,530 Bytes
- 3 Pages / 612 x 720 pts Page_size
- 45 Downloads / 181 Views
Review the Project Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better. John Updike
We increase success in just about anything we do if we schedule regular reviews to adjust for any changed conditions and critically examine progress. When objective third parties can be included in the process, even more can be gained. Reviews should be open, candid, and honest. Good monitoring data and good records are a primary basis for good reviews. The process of using performance information to review and refine the restoration program is called adaptive management. Design and schedule reviews so that adaptive refinements can become part of the evolving plan, not just a side process that does not inform the overall program. Refinements may also be required as a result of new conditions such as changes in financing, delays resulting from labor shortage, or weather. Some tasks must be timed to coincide with specific biological and meteorological events. For example, if you are planning on using prescribed burning, make sure you have included a task to obtain any necessary approvals or permits ahead of time. With that scheduling task, make
sure you realize the best time or times of year when burning can be done. At Stone Prairie Farm, burning can be conducted in early spring before vegetation greens up, during the heat of the midsummer if there is a dead thatch layer underlying the green vegetation, or in the fall after all vegetation becomes dormant. Steve scheduled spring and midsummer burns to better control cool season grass growth and invasive woody vegetation, respectively. Often, however, conditions have not been suitable, and alternative autumn burns have been done. The point is, you may have to reschedule some tasks, perhaps at less optimum times. Figure 9.1 emphasizes there is a season or time for many tasks. Align the tasks that must be seasonally or phenologically specific with the scheduling of other tasks. This will include not only prescribed burning, but weed management (as some techniques only work at specific times), seed collecting, and planting. Monitoring schedules also are time sensitive. Monitoring to compare changes over time, from year to year must be completed at about the same time each year.
S.I. Apfelbaum and A. Haney, The Restoring Ecological Health to Your Land Workbook, The Science and Practice of Ecological Restoration, DOI 10.5822/978-1-61091-049-1_9, © 2012 Steven I. Apfelbaum and Alan Haney
131
132
th e re storing ec ologic al h ealth to yo u r lan d wo rkbo o k
Figure 9.1. Schedules for restoration projects must coincide with the appropriate times of year
Task 30. Schedule Semiannual and Annual Reviews Schedule a semiannual and an annual review with the immediate project team (e.g., your family, your land trust members, or others) and, if possible, one or more people outside the immediate team. Include reviews in the schedule of tasks for each year. To get the most out of the review, restate goals and objectives and summarize the data available to assess
Data Loading...
