The Human Element of Restoration Success: Manager Characteristics Affect Vegetation Recovery Following Invasive Tamarix
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PHYSICAL AND BIOTIC DRIVERS OF CHANGE IN RIPARIAN ECOSYSTEMS
The Human Element of Restoration Success: Manager Characteristics Affect Vegetation Recovery Following Invasive Tamarix Control Anna A. Sher 1 & Lisa Clark 1 & Annie L. Henry 1 & Alexander R. B. Goetz 1 & Eduardo González 2 & Anit Tyagi 1 & Isabelle Simpson 1 & Bérenger Bourgeois 3 Received: 4 May 2020 / Accepted: 25 August 2020 # Society of Wetland Scientists 2020
Abstract We investigated the relative role of manager traits and decisions for explaining the impact of riparian restoration. To do this, we used the difference in vegetation between post-restoration and controls for 243 pairs of sites to create a success index. We then determined how much variability in success could be explained by physical variables that directly impact vegetation (environment and weed removal) versus human variables (characteristics of the people who managed those sites and their management decisions). More than 60% of the variability in vegetation change could be explained, with human variables increasing adjusted R-square values of physical-only models by an average of 47%. Restoration “success” was positively associated with an increase in the number of collaborators, the number of information sources used, and the relative priority of plant-related goals. Worse outcomes were associated with an increase in the number of roles the manager held, monitoring frequency, and with higher manager education level. These results point to the indirect impacts of the human element, and specifically supports recommendations to include multiple partners and set specific goals. To our knowledge, this is the first time the importance of human characteristics as drivers of restoration outcomes has been quantified. Keywords Riparian restoration . Invasive species . Tamarix . Coupled natural-human systems . Collaboration . Monitoring
Introduction Ecological restoration projects are inherently beholden to the people involved; outcomes will be largely affected by management decisions across a project’s duration. Most studies on the ecological outcomes of restoration compare the effects of direct actions on ecosystems, such as methods used to actively remove invasive plant species (Ruiz-Jaen and Aide 2005;
* Anna A. Sher [email protected] 1
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USA
2
Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA
3
Department of Plant Sciences, Université Laval, Quebec city, QC, Canada
González et al. 2015), but a growing body of literature suggests that personal and professional traits of land managers and the specific ways they conduct restoration projects (exclusive of direct actions) may also help to predict ecological outcomes of restoration (Wortley et al. 2013; Morandi et al. 2014; Hychka and Druschke 2017; Rohal et al. 2018; Stanford et al. 2018). For example, scientists emphasize the importance of selection and prioritization of restoration goals (Shafroth et al. 2008), the type and degree of collaborat
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