Monitoring 20-year-old planting projects

By Emily Towery, Restoration Technician

The field crew has begun collecting data on NSEA’s legacy sites (restoration projects that are over 20 years old). In collaboration with Jim Helfield, a professor at Western Washington University, we have created a monitoring protocol to assess these now mature forests, including canopy cover, stand density, understory composition, and invasive species presence. Collecting this data will help us measure the long-term success of our riparian plantings and evaluate how well these habitats are functioning over time.

I’m excited to be leading the monitoring team and grateful to work for an organization that is always looking for ways to learn, improve, and strengthen our restoration efforts. Most recently, we finished monitoring a stretch of riparian buffer on Squalicum Creek right next to NSEA that was planted in 1996. It never ceases to amaze me how these projects develop over a span of three decades!