“State of the Estuary” - Developing a long term monitoring, assessment and reporting framework for the lower Saint Louis River
Citation:
Hollenhorst, T. “State of the Estuary” - Developing a long term monitoring, assessment and reporting framework for the lower Saint Louis River. St. Louis River Summit, Superior, WI, March 14 - 15, 2017.
Impact/Purpose:
This abstract is for a presentation at the St. Louis River Summit. The talk will discuss the need for a “State of The Estuary” report, what a long term monitoring, assessment and reporting framework for the Saint Louis River might look like, and how it might be developed.
Description:
As the lower Saint Louis River moves closer and closer to delisting as an Area of Concern, it is incumbent that we measure, assess and report on our success. Going forward, It’s equally important that we continue monitoring to protect and sustain the healthy ecosystems we’ve worked so hard to attain. We propose here the development of a long term systematic monitoring, assessment and reporting framework to help highlight and publicize the successful recovery of the lower Saint Louis River. Such a framework should outline methods for regularly measuring, monitoring and assessing the current health of the river and its ecosystems into the future followed with a periodic reporting of the “State of the Estuary”. This framework should be developed by the stakeholder community over a series of meetings, leading to a collaborative, partner-driven approach. To the extent possible, existing sampling and monitoring programs should be incorporated, along with additional metrics needed to tell the complete story on the “State of the Estuary”. These additional metrics might include economic, social science and human health indicators, contaminants of emerging concern, long term restoration effectiveness and other monitoring needs not yet recognized. Examples of other “State of the Ecosystem” efforts will be discussed as possible models to follow.