A TOP-DOWN APPROACH FOR IDENTIFYING AND PRIORITIZING THE FINAL ECOSYSTEM GOODS AND SERVICES PRODUCED BY ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION

The goals for restoration projects are often framed in terms of the benefits that will be derived from restorative actions. In many cases, the restored benefits include the direct uses of nature by people (aka, final ecosystem goods and services, or FEGS), such as enhanced recreational viewing of native wildlife, improved fishing for desired species, or increased protection of property due to wave attenuation by native vegetation. Consideration of the direct benefits that people could obtain from a restored site informs the development of monitoring plans that include FEGS-relevant metrics. These metrics can be used for adaptive management decisions and aid in communicating restoration progress toward people-centric goals to inform stakeholders and the public. We present a top-down approach to identifying the FEGS that are relevant to restoration of a site using EPA’s National Ecosystem Service Classification System Plus (NESCS Plus). Using a generalized, systematic, top-down approach ensures that a full suite of potential FEGS is identified. These FEGS can then be used by restoration practitioners to identify relevant metrics to incorporate into restoration planning, monitoring, and adaptive management design. Using NESCS Plus, we identified more than 85 FEGS that may be produced by tidal wetlands (our example system). These FEGS were distributed across 29 classes of beneficiaries—defined as the roles assumed by people as they use, appreciate, or enjoy tidal wetlands—and seven classes of ecological endpoints representing a coarse categorization of the biophysical attributes that beneficiaries use. To determine which of these FEGS are of greatest interest (i.e., cited most frequently) for tidal wetland restoration, we conducted a data mining exercise using documents from organizations charged with managing, conserving, and/or restoring tidal wetlands (i.e., National Estuary Programs, National Estuarine Research Reserves, land trusts, and selected non-governmental organizations) using the results of the NESCS Plus search and other documentation. The results of this analysis will guide our prioritization of FEGS for metric development for tidal wetlands. These materials are intended for use by tidal wetland restoration practitioners and decision makers to measure progress toward a restoration project’s benefit-based goals; and, this approach is expected to be applicable to restoration of other types of ecosystems. 

Impact/Purpose

In this presentation, ORD scientists will demonstrate a method to identify and prioritize the final ecosystem goods and services (FEGS) that are most relevant to stakeholders involved with restoration projects.  FEGS are the attributes or process of nature that people directly use, appreciate or enjoy.  Justification for conducting restoration projects is often framed as the desire to increase the beneficial uses of a site, such as increasing wildlife for recreational enjoyment, hunting or fishing, or protecting property from erosion. The ecological attributes associated with those uses (i.e., wildlife, shoreline vegetation) are FEGS. Metrics to quantify whether the production of those FEGS can be used to track the progress of the restoration toward achieving the desired benefits. However, there are no standard methods to determine what FEGS are relevant for restoration, let alone how to determine which ones are most important to stakeholders (e.g., and of highest priority for metric development). ORD’s method uses the recently developed National Ecosystem Services Classification System Plus tool to identify all of the possible FEGS associated with a particular environment type. In this study, the researchers focused on tidal wetlands, which include sites that are highly degraded and contaminated, and are frequent targets for restoration. To determine which are the priority FEGS for tidal wetlands, the ORD team conducted a literature review of mission-statements, management priority documents, and restoration planning documents from stakeholder-oriented organizations that are concerned with the management, conservation, or restoration of tidal wetlands. Those include federally-managed organizations, land trusts, and NGO’s. This method is transferable to inform development of FEGS metrics for other types of environments (i.e., streams, lakes, grasslands, forests, etc). 

Citation

DeWitt, Ted, J. Bousquin, H. Diefenderfer, C. Folger, M. Harwell, C. Hernandez, C. Jackson, T. Newcomer-Johnson, L. Sharpe, AND S. Yee. A TOP-DOWN APPROACH FOR IDENTIFYING AND PRIORITIZING THE FINAL ECOSYSTEM GOODS AND SERVICES PRODUCED BY ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION. National Conference on Ecosystem Restoration, NA, FL, August 02 - 05, 2021.