Intensively Monitored Watersheds Project

In 2005, PNAMP recommended establishing a regional network of Intensively Monitored Watersheds (IMWs) to evaluate the effectiveness of restoration projects, programs and policies at the landscape scale. The basic premise of is that the complex relationships controlling salmon response to habitat conditions can best be understood by concentrating and integrating rigorous monitoring and research efforts at a few locations. IMWs reduce the complications of monitoring project effectiveness, increase the comprehensiveness of monitoring, and increase efficiencies through shared responsibilities.

To date, PNAMP has produced an IMW strategy, followed up by a white paper describing the overall suite of action effectiveness approaches and a context for how IMWs fit in. PNAMP would like to update the characterization of all IMWs and the IMW map as needed, look at what current IMWs address and what gaps exist (part of the Effectiveness Monitoring Coordination and Assessment Project), and initiate discussion regarding technical and policy-level adjustments in the IMW network. Due to participant staff changes, many of these next steps have not been pursued in the past year. PNAMP hopes to reinvigorate these efforts in the next year.