The purpose of the proposal is to start brainstorming informally about the major goals of the project, which will guide your research and data-gathering protocols. Your final project may deviate from your initial proposal, depending on what you find out about the site when you inventory it; what you learn about the history of the site, or the ownership; etc.This is normal, and does not necessarily indicate that the initial proposal is faulty.I expect you to think about the possible goals and objectives you would like to achieve; to anticipate potential pitfalls with the project; and to identify some of the things you need to know to proceed towards your plan

To complete this assignment, please use this template Preview the documentand upload as a .docx or .pdf.

2020 Fall ENV495 Project Proposal Due Tuesday Oct 6th at 11:59 PM Worth 10% of final grade Please use the template posted on Quercus and submit as a .docx or .pdf. The purpose of the proposal is to start brainstorming informally about the major goals of the project, which will guide your research and data-gathering protocols. Your final project may deviate from your initial proposal, depending on what you find out about the site when you inventory it; what you learn about the history of the site, or the ownership; etc. This is normal, and does not necessarily indicate that the initial proposal is faulty. I expect you to think about the possible goals and objectives you would like to achieve; to anticipate potential pitfalls with the project; and to identify some of the things you need to know to proceed towards your plan. Your first challenge is to find a site. Fortunately, most places in the world have areas that could use some restoration, so hopefully you won't have to travel too far! We will be talking a lot about the restoration continuum, and you can choose a location from anywhere along the continuum (keeping in mind that if it’s already in good shape, you will have fewer recommendations to work with). You can pick a public park, an urban woodlot, a hydro easement, a section of stream, a schoolyard, etc. Or, you can get into the nittygritty of reclamation and remediation by looking at a brownfield site, an industrial area – even an area of asphalt that you would like to transform into a green space. Things to keep in mind in choosing a site: • Your site should be easily accessible as you will need to make a few visits to inventory the area; • There should be some delineation of the site – either a natural boundary, or a human-created boundary (e.g., a property line; etc.) • The site should be small enough that you can assess the whole area, but large enough that restoration efforts there will be meaningful. For the proposal, you don’t need to have conducted a full inventory of the site, but you should be able to: • Provide the location and place it on a map; • Identify any stakeholders in the project; • Describe the local ecosystem; • Identify a few major stressors to the area; • Propose a main restoration target/goal of the plan; 2020 Fall ENV495 Project Proposal 2 • Identify specific problems that need to be solved (e.g., bank erosion; soil compaction; invasive species; eutrophication, etc.) • Identify crucial pieces of information that you need to proceed with the plan, and how those information bits will be obtained. Do you need to do field work? What kind – will you need to borrow equipment from the department? Do you need to speak to any experts for their input? • You will need to do a brief SWOT analysis. The assignment has 3 parts. The template has some tips and prompts for completing these sections. 1. An Introduction to the Site: o Site Location o Brief Site Description o Site Condition o Site Opportunities o Need-to-Knows* 2. SWOT Analysis** 3. Annotated Bibliography*** *Need-to-Knows: NTK’s will be used a lot in this course, especially in the context of Adaptive Management (a key concept in restoration project management). A need-toknow is a piece of information that must be obtained/resolved before you can move forward with the project. **SWOT Analysis: A SWOT analysis is used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats involved in a project. These are the internal and external factors that will either help you to reach the goals/objectives of a project, or conversely, will make it more difficult to achieve those goals and objectives. Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the project, and usually relate to the personnel involved. What do you bring to the project that will help it succeed? Skills? Knowledge? Expertise? Enthusiasm? Connections? etc. Conversely, what are your weaknesses? Lack of knowledge; lack of specific skills, etc.…? Opportunities and threats are external forces outside of your control that can have a positive or negative effect on the project. These can include stakeholders, equipment, data sources, time, money, access, etc., etc. ***Annotated Bibliography: The purpose of the annotated bibliography is to start pulling together the resources you will need to develop your restoration plan. Every restoration is unique, leading to “just-in-time” learning: you discover what you need to know as you go along, and adjust accordingly. On the other hand, every restoration project is grounded in 2020 Fall ENV495 Project Proposal 3 ecological principles – there are certain things that will be part of every plan, including a solid understanding of the type of ecosystem, the abiotic and biotic components that characterize that system, the fundamental ecosystem services that arise from that ecosystem, and the typical vulnerabilities and responses of that type of ecosystem to common stressors. Your annotated bibliography should reflect this continuum: you will need to delve into the primary academic literature to understand the ecological underpinnings of the system you are working with, but you will also likely have to access other types of documents to develop an understanding of the specifics of your site. These types of documents may include: • Technical manuals (published by governments, NGOs, environmental consulting firms) • Government reports, policy documents, white papers, master plans, inventories, strategies, etc. For each source, please provide: • The full and correct citation in APA format. If you have any doubts about how to format your bibliography, the Library has some good resources. (See http://guides.library.utoronto.ca/c.php?g=251103&p=1673071 ). • A brief (2-3 sentence at most) summary of the paper. Please do not just re-write the abstract! The summary should provide a bit more information than I would glean just by reading the title, but does not need to be as detailed as an abstract. Examples: “This is an academic paper exploring how biogeochemical cycling in deciduous forests is likely to change under different climate change models, and how this should inform restoration priorities”. Or, “This is a plant inventory developed by the USGS to guide wetland restorations and mitigations in the Eastern Seaboard.” • A brief description of how and why you think this paper is relevant to your project. Of course, this may change over time – as your project develops, the reference may no longer be relevant – or, it may become valuable or important in ways you don’t yet realize. So here I would like to see something like: “Because my site seems to have a lot of problems with soil quality (e.g., the organic layer looks really depleted; there is hardly and litter etc.), I think I need to understand a lot more about soil dynamics and how they might be affected by increasing levels of drought. There are also some very useful references within the paper to other studies on carbon loss from fragmented woodlots.” Or, “Even though this planting guide is from a different ecoregion, it’s really helpful because they list several types of environmental tolerances for each plant, and they provide links to successful 2020 Fall ENV495 Project Proposal 4 projects that have used those plants. I think I will be able to use this to evaluate the pros and cons of the different types of emergent plants I would like to plant at my site.” • Aim for solid, reputable journals – at least one or two of your papers will probably be about the fundamental ecological principles underlying your project, so you should be looking at some of the big journals for this. If you don’t know the highlyranked journals in ecology, here are two good lists: https://conservationbytes.com/2014/08/01/a-fairer-way-to-rank-conservationand-ecology-journals-in-2014/ (The post is a bit out of date, but the rankings are still pretty much the same as they were in 2014). The nice thing about these lists is the journal names are all hyperlinked – and most journals have their own internal search functions, so that’s another way to hone in on good papers on a specific topic). Recent references are important, but use your judgement – a 2004 paper from Trends in Ecology and Evolution that has been cited 500 times is probably still very valid! • Make sure that most of your papers are specifically focused on restoration – for example, if you need to learn something about invasive plants, there is a massive amount of literature on invasion biology, but only a small subset relates to control/eradication/restoration. It’s great to get some basic background, but make sure that you are quickly homing in on restoration. • be very cautious about descriptions of restorations from very different ecosystems/parts of the world. Some basic principles about grassland dynamics apply to any grassland biome, but the methods used to restore a grassland in Namibia likely have limited utility to a tall-grass prairie remnant in Oakville… Template (for reference only; please download a copy from Quercus): Fall 2020 ENV495 Project Proposal NAME: __________________________________ WORKING TITLE OF THE PROJECT (This is provisional but should reflect the location and the goal of the project.) 2020 Fall ENV495 Project Proposal 5 PART I:INTRODUCTION TO THE SITE A. SITE LOCATION (The simplest thing is to create a polygon on Google Earth. For a quick tutorial on how to do this, here is a video from the UTM library: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8NvZZS5wrA. Just screenshot the polygon and paste here.) B.BRIEF SITE DESCRIPTION (In this space, please provide an approximately 1-page description of the site.) Suggested items to cover: • What is the size of the site? • Who owns it/administers it? • What is the history of the site? • Who are the stakeholders? • What kind of ecosystem(s) are represented? • What are some important physical features of the site? Topography, hydrological features etc. • What type/extent of vegetation cover is present? • What is the landscape context – what surrounds the site? • Does it have natural and/or manmade boundaries?) C. SITE CONDITION (In this space, please provide an approximately 1-page description of the site condition.) Suggested items: • What ecosystem types/ biological communities are present? • Are there any obvious stressors present? • If there is standing/flowing water, does it appear to be degraded? • Do you see any obvious issues with the soil – compaction, erosion, etc.? • Is the plant community diverse? Is there evidence of non-native species? D. SITE OPPORTUNITIES (In this space, please provide an approximately 1 page description of what is valuable about your site – either what is valuable now, or the potential of the site.) Suggested items: • Is the site potential habitat for endangered species or species of concern? 2020 Fall ENV495 Project Proposal 6 • Could the site be part of an ecological corridor? • Could the site provide ecosystem services? E. NEED-TO-KNOWS • What is some of the information you need right away to move forward on your project? (In this space, please provide an approximately ½-1-page answer.) PART II: SWOT ANALYSIS • What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that you face in developing your restoration plan – i.e., producing your final report? (Note: we are not concerned with a SWOT analysis of implementing the plan at this point; that will come later.) Helpful (to the objectives) Harmful (to the objectives) Internal origin (Strengths) (Weaknesses) External origin (Opportunities) (Threats) PART III: ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Please cite 5-8 sources (depending on the length of the journal articles/documents). For each paper please provide: • full citation (APA) • 2-3 sentence summary • relevance of the paper to your project. 2020 Fall ENV495 Project Proposal 7 Marking Rubric: Introduction to the Site: Map(s) and polygon(s) are clear and legible; figure is captioned. Descriptions of site, site conditions and site opportunities are thorough (addressing the suggested items), demonstrate good observation skills and attention to detail; address both biotic and abiotic components of the site; points raised are specific and perceptive addresses most of the suggested points; diagrams (if used) are helpful and illustrative; need-to-knows are perceptive and thoughtful. 4 pts SWOT Analysis: Evidence that you have thought about potential pitfalls with the project, as well as any opportunities worth exploiting. Clear differentiation between external and internal threats/opportunities. 2 pts Annotated Bibliography: 5-8 good quality sources; restoration-focused; summaries reflect the content in your own words; relevance and utility of the paper to your project is clear; APA citations are consistent and accurate 4 pts

Fall 2020 ENV495 Project Proposal

(This is provisional but should reflect the location and the goal of the project.)

(The simplest thing is to create a polygon on Google Earth.  For a quick tutorial on how to do this, here is a video from the UTM library: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8NvZZS5wrA.  Just screenshot the polygon and paste here.)

(In this space, please provide an approximately 1-page description of the site.) 

Suggested items to cover:

• What is the size of the site?



• Who owns it/administers it?



•  What is the history of the site?



• Who are the stakeholders?



• What kind of ecosystem(s) are represented?



• What are some important physical features of the site? Topography, hydrological features etc.



• What type/extent of vegetation cover is present?



• What is the landscape context – what surrounds the site?



• Does it have natural and/or manmade boundaries?)

(In this space, please provide an approximately 1-page description of the site condition.) 

Suggested items:

• What ecosystem types/ biological communities are present?



• Are there any obvious stressors present?



• If there is standing/flowing water, does it appear to be degraded?



• Do you see any obvious issues with the soil – compaction, erosion, etc.?



• Is the plant community diverse?  Is there evidence of non-native species?

(In this space, please provide an approximately 1 page description of what is valuable about your site – either what is valuable now, or the potential of the site.) 

Suggested items:

• Is the site potential habitat for endangered species or species of concern?



• Could the site be part of an ecological corridor?



• Could the site provide ecosystem services?



• What is some of the information you need right away to move forward on your project?

(In this space, please provide an approximately ½-1-page answer.)

• What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that you face in developing your restoration plan – i.e., producing your final report?  (Note: we are not concerned with a SWOT analysis of implementing the plan at this point; that will come later.)

For each paper please provide:

• full citation (APA)



•