Establishing a Monitoring Plan

Before you begin implementing your restoration plans, you will need to consider how you will monitor your project's success. How will you measure progress towards your goal? What, where, when, how long, and how will you measure? A more detailed discussion of monitoring is given later in these guidelines; monitoring is mentioned here to emphasize the need to consider data collection previous to any restoration treatments. Pre-treatment data, and/or data from a 'control' (similar, untreated area) are essential for assessing change as a result of your restoration. A monitoring plan should be in place previous to starting work. A sample monitoring plan outline is given in Appendix 3.

Finding Funding

While there are many funding sources that support restoration projects, finding stable funding can be considerable work. Most restoration projects are funded by multiple sources. Aside from applying to funding agencies and foundations, it is a good idea to approach local and regional governments, resource users, businesses and other key players for support.
The following are internet-based funding directories:

• The Canadian Stewardship Funding Sources Directory, from the Stewardship Centre (BC): http://www.stewardshipcentre.bc.ca/sc_bc/sc_funders/funderSearch.asp
• The Green Source, prepared by Environment Canada, is a guide to funding for environmental projects: http://www.pyr.ec.gc.ca/ecoaction/otherfunding/fund_e.htm

Writing a Restoration Plan

The outcome of your planning efforts should be a restoration document that describes how and what you want to accomplish. This plan will always be in progress, but needs to contain as much detailed information as possible, including maps, budgets, and schedules for work, for both current and future years. Creating this type of document is essential to ensure your work is organized and thoughtful, and it also demonstrates to funding agencies that you know what you're doing. A sample plan is included in Appendix 1, and the table below highlights the most important items necessary for a good restoration plan.