The following is not a set of "rules", but rather some observations made in the field and during the implementation of the "Lower Coquille Riparian Restoration Project". Use whatever information that fits your project and file the rest.
Paul Merz, 8/1/95

Understand What It Takes to Create a Healthy Stream

Recognize habitat needs, from egg to adult, for the entire life cycle of the fish, and identify these needs by season and stream condition as influenced b different short term weather patterns. Without this knowledge, successful project design is difficult at best.

Get to Know Your Entire Watershed

Locate the functional habitat on any system. Concentrate on protecting and enhancing these remnants of original habitat before trying to build new habitat. Use existing habitat as models.

Spend time in city and college libraries and historic archives doing historical research so that enhancement efforts will closely match historical natural conditions and not create problems in the future. Try not to second guess or out-smart mother nature.

Recognize the biological needs of the system by reach, and the economic needs of the area (agriculture, timber production, residential, etc.) and design projects around cooperating landowners according to these needs.

Design Projects To Tie Into And Enhance Existing Habitat And Other Projects So That All Needs Of The System Are Addressed

Know what other projects are "on the ground" and work in concert.

Avoid duplicity by tapping into existing resources and sharing information with others who are doing similar work (habitat surveys, landowner contracts, funding sources, fish distribution data, project design, implementation methods, etc.) Before you start habitat surveys and researching ownership and collecting data, make sure someone doesn't have the information you need in their files.

Use the agencies. They have knowledgeable staff, technical experts and records that can help in project design. Agency funding comes from your salmon landing fees, commercial license fees, and state and federal taxes.

Make sure the work being done in the field addresses the problems the project was designed to correct. Example: with sunlight and winter storms from the south, planting conifers on a north bank won't provide shade or much large wood input to the system.

When ordering nursery stock, buy the biggest trees you can find. Riparian zones are tough places for small trees (floods, cattle, beaver, deer, mowing machines, etc.).

Get the biggest bang for the buck. Don't throw money and effort at large projects that build marginal habitat if the same money and effort can be used to protect and enhance an already functional refuge.

Build A Personal Relationship With Landowners

Develop a trust with them, and respect their opinions and rights to manage their own lands.

Not all experts are "ologists" and not all "ologists" are experts. Some of the most important project information will come from landowners. These people can often provide site specific information about land use practices and stream conditions going back several generations.

Ask landowners if they think their neighbors might be interested in the work being done. One cooperating landowner can help "sell" the project to neighbors.

Try to get individuals and families to take ownership of restoration work done on their land. Ask them for advice during project planning (plant species, fence types, etc.).

Greater public awareness and involvement will lead to more far reaching and economical projects.

Ask cooperating landowners to help spread the word about projects.

Use the media but make certain they have correct information and present it properly.

Try to develop "community ownership" in projects.

Never turn down volunteer help, especially from landowners.

Design Flexibility Into Projects Whenever Possible So Day To Day Logistics Don't Become A Problem

Set a minimum level of participation for landowner agreements. Then learn to "sell the project" to skeptics.

Do your homework. Try to anticipate questions about the project and be ready with answers.

Point out advantages to participation, and stewardship incentives (habitat enhancement, erosion control, free fencing, aesthetics, healthy fish stocks, etc.).

Within reason, adjust prescriptions to meet the needs of the landowners, but don't sign up landowners who are unwilling to participate at a level necessary to make a project successful.

Listen to and try to address landowner concerns. If you can't answer a question, do some research because the question will probably come up again.

Remember that one unhappy landowner communicating his feelings to neighbors can doom a project.

When Meeting Landowners In The Field, Keep Your Eyes Open, and Build A Written Inventory of Resources To Help In Projects

Look for opportunities for any habitat work, not just the work your immediate project is aimed at.

Approach landowners about developing off-channel ponds and off-site livestock watering systems. Look for tributaries hat are in need of fencing, planting, and instream structure.

Look for waterfowl habitat. Duck ponds are often juvenile coho habitat also.

Try to blend habitat work with landuse. Riparian area fencing can anchor cross fencing and lead to more productive pasture management. Riparian plantings can provide windbreaks and shade for livestock.. Often, when clearing fence lines, the landowner will gain pasture.

Take inventory of willow and hardwood stands where cuttings can be taken for planting on other sites. Power line and road right of ways are often good sources for cuttings. Willow and hardwood stumps often grow many new shoots that make good planting stock.

Logging, road building and land clearing can be a good source of materials for instream structures (logs, root wads, boulders).

Look for culverts and tidegates that may be causing passage problems for juveniles or adults.

Ask landowners about equipment or materials they might be able to provide to help with project development: tractors with front end loaders and brush hogs for site preparation, fence post drivers, backhoes for off channel ponds and culvert repair, electric fence charges, unused water troughs, old stump piles for stream structures. etc.

Unused space in barns and sheds can provide storage space for tools and equipment, eliminate the cost of renting storage and put your tools and materials closer to the job site.

Ask the landowner for assistance. At worst he will say is no.

Respect Current Land Use Practices But Offer Alternatives

If livestock are using a stream, develop an alternative water source.

When doing fencing and planting projects, be willing to trade some off site work (clearing, fencing, water systems) for the right to plant and fence a strip of currently productive pasture or hay field in the riparian area.

Don't try to showcase any particular site. Money and time spent trying to create a park-like setting is better spent expanding the project. Set some standards and maintain them throughout the project.

Don't commit to something you can't deliver.

Keep good records of all time and materials used to accomplish a project. Landowner's time spent on the project should be figured at the going rate as technical assistance, and use of landowner equipment at the cost to rent the same equipment. Almost all time and money spent on a project can be used to leverage more funding to expand the project or start a new one.

Have Projects "On The Shelf"

Build an inventory of future projects.

Do the design work and make initial landowner contacts so you can show cause and give project specific answers when requesting funds.

When preparing a budget, identify the logistics of the project, and try to recognize snags.

If in doubt, be liberal with budget items. If during the project it becomes apparent that money is long, expand the project by adding more landowners or work sites.

If you stumble over a flaw in project design, back off and get some new direction. A bad design will yield a bad product.

You Can't Just Do IT

Learn to play the politics. With most projects there are quite a few hoops to jump through, and everyone involved has their own agenda and priorities concerning habitat work.

Remember that most projects require a funding source and some type of permit, and money usually has strings attached.

If you are working with grant money, once the planning is done and field work has progressed to a point that it is safe to say the project will be a success, several people from far away offices, who had something to do with generating the funding will show up with the news media, ask a few questions and make a brief statement for the cameras proclaiming their project a great success and a shining example of what can be accomplished with cooperation from local people. There will be a round of thanks to a long list of agencies and people whose names you've never heard before, and at that point, the person speaking will rush off to catch a plane, with media in tow. Don't get frustrated. Remember that the person with the money makes the rules. We are really working for the fish and fish don't care who does the work.

If we do our present jobs well, we can all go back to our real jobs.

Good fishing.