SRFB Monitoring Program

This short video provides an overview of salmon recovery monitoring funded by the Salmon Recovery Funding Board.

Intensively Monitored Watersheds

The Intensively Monitored Watersheds program asks the question: Is restoration working to increase salmon numbers? Intensively Monitored Watersheds (or IMW) monitoring compares the number of salmon from streams where habitat restoration was done to similar streams nearby without such actions. This shows if changes in fish survival and productivity are due to restoration efforts or to other factors not related to stream restoration. This SRFB-funded program has led to scientific findings about salmon life strategies and habitat needs and helps improve designs of restoration projects.

Effectiveness Monitoring

Project-level effectiveness monitoring funded by the SRFB addresses whether habitat restoration projects are effectively achieving their goals. By measuring environmental conditions, habitat characteristics, and biological indicators, scientists can begin to answer questions such as: did planted trees provide shade for the stream? Did the logs that were added to streams increase pool depths? In addition to a state-led project effectiveness program that evaluated several monitoring categories (listed in more detail below) the SRFB funds project effectiveness through their regional grant program. The SRFB uses this information to guide its restoration project investments.

Regional Monitoring

The regional salmon recovery organizations may use a portion of their annual SRFB allocation for regional monitoring projects. Funded projects monitor effectiveness of restoration projects, salmonid abundance, biological or physical indices, salmonid harvests, or water quality and quantity (flow). Monitoring projects collect fish abundance or habitat condition data usually over multiple years to assess trends or to assess effectiveness of restoration actions. Regional monitoring projects must address high-priority information needs or data gaps identified in a recovery plan or an associated regional research, monitoring, and evaluation plan and complement, enhance, or leverage ongoing monitoring efforts across the state.

Project Effectiveness Monitoring:

Effectiveness Monitoring Reports

• Salmon Recovery Funding Board Reach-Scale Project Effectiveness Monitoring Program - 2018 Final Report (Cramer Fish Sciences 2019)
• Remote Sensing Pilot Project: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Large Floodplain and Riparian Restoration Projects Using Remote Sensing (Cramer Fish Sciences 2023)

  Effectiveness Monitoring Protocols

  • Floodplain and Riparian Projects
  • MC-1 Fish Passage Projects
  • MC-2 Instream Habitat Projects
  • MC-3 Riparian Planting Projects
  • MC-4 Livestock Exclusion Projects
  • MC-5/6 Floodplain Enhancement Projects
  • MC-7 Spawning Gravel Projects
  • MC-8 Instream Diversion Projects
  • MC-10 Habitat Protection Projects

Intensively Monitored Watersheds:

• 2023 IMW Results Report - Review Results to Date from the SRFB IMWs (Anderson et al. 2023)
• 2022 PNAMP IMW Synthesis Report - Management Implications from Pacific Northwest Intensively Monitored Watersheds (Science Advisory Panel 2022)
• 2006 Study Plan - Review of the Study Plan for the Intensively Monitored Watershed Program (Independent Science Panel 2006)

Other SRFB Monitoring Reports:

• Monitoring Investment Strategy for the Salmon Recovery Funding Board (Stillwater 2013)
• Governor's Forum on Monitoring - Recommendations to the Salmon Recovery Regions (FORUM 2005)
• Washington Comprehensive Monitoring Strategy and Action Plan for Watershed Health and Salmon Recovery (Monitoring Oversight Committee 2002)
  • Volume 1
  • Volume 2
  • Volume 3