A Landscape Perspective in Tributary Habitat Restoration: Paradox or a Path Forward?

Guidance for recovery of “viable salmonid populations” in the Columbia River Basin has focused on characteristics of population size, population growth rate, diversity, and spatial structure.  Implementation of these concepts will require a landscape context.  Research continues to provide more comprehensive data and develop models with broader and more integrated spatial and temporal perspectives. We are gaining remarkable tools to gather data and build new insight into the large scale processes that regulate and constrain the dynamics of forests and aquatic systems.  But, substantial uncertainty remains in the science and particularly in the translation and application to conservation management and restoration. The complexity of natural systems, growing demands on natural resources, and the competing objectives in management represent difficult if not seemingly intractable problems for managers who are intent on addressing multiple issues simultaneously across broad regions.  A landscape perspective and science can help, but implementation is still limited by a lack of coordination and fragmentation in science and management responsibilities, conceptual foundations, disciplines, and analytic and social capacity.  Resolving these issues can be key to a path forward in effective habitat conservation and restoration.