The Amazon Basin Project is an appropriate land conservancy project as a mitigation and restoration effort. The project operates under a site management plan with appropriate partners. Each iteration since 2000 appears to have been improved, increasingly focused, and responsive to ISRP's review comments.

In general, the sponsors show an impressively broad ecological and naturalist's approach to restoration/enhancement of the Willow Creek watershed habitats, flora, and fauna. The work is proceeding well with documented progress. Based on this group’s experience in the Willamette Valley (and success at Willow Creek) and their initial evaluations of other potential locations, land acquisitions with similar management approaches in other locations in the valley seem appropriate.

1. Technical Justification, Program Significance and Consistency, and Project Relationships
Based on the ISRP site visit, the project appears to have an important focus on restoring Fender's Blue butterfly and its habitat (especially, Kincaid’s Lupine). In addition there are six habitat types that are addressed for restoration as well as the priority focal species that rely on these habitats. The technical justification is well written and persuasive. The proposal could be improved with maps showing the location of the specific projects.

3. Objectives, Work Elements, and Methods
In some cases the objectives have well-defined and measured performance metrics and in others less so. There are several instances where comparisons with baseline data are proposed. If in fact this is the case (Objective 2), more details would be useful.

Using a method described by Hulse et al. (2002) to rank 1 km sections of the mainstem Willamette River for floodplain restoration opportunities shows the proponents have a solid understanding of landscape heterogeneity and are taking a systematic approach to the problem.

Especially critical has been the increasing inclusion of specific "effectiveness monitoring" metrics and work elements. These are important to demonstrate whether the various conservation efforts, e.g., weed removal, bullfrog removal, controlled burns, have improved or changed the habitat as a course-filter effect. Ultimately, future efforts will need to increasingly include fine-filter (specific population responses) monitoring.

4. M&E
The sophisticated analyses of the Bradshaw's Lomatium at Willow Creek indicated that proper data are being collected and analyzed for adaptive management.

The Amazon Basin Project is an appropriate land conservancy project as a mitigation and restoration effort. The project operates under a site management plan with appropriate partners. Each iteration since 2000 appears to have been improved, increasingly focused, and responsive to ISRP's review comments. In general, the sponsors show an impressively broad ecological and naturalist's approach to restoration/enhancement of the Willow Creek watershed habitats, flora and fauna. The work is going well and progress is being made. Based on this group’s experience in the Willamette Valley (and success at Willow Creek), and their initial evaluations of other potential locations, land acquisitions with similar management approaches in other locations in the valley seem appropriate. 1. Technical Justification, Program Significance and Consistency, and Project Relationships Based on the ISRP site visit, the project appears to have an important focus on restoring Fender's Blue butterfly and its habitat (especially, Kincaid’s Lupine). In addition there are six habitat types that are addressed for restoration as well as the priority focal species that rely on these habitats. The technical justification is well written and persuasive. The proposal could be improved with maps showing the location of the specific projects. 3. Objectives, Work Elements, and Methods In some cases the objectives have well-defined and measured performance metrics and in others less so. There are several instances where comparisons with baseline data are proposed. If in fact this is the case (Objective 2), more details would be useful. Using a method described by Hulse et al. (2002) to rank 1 km sections of the mainstem Willamette River for floodplain restoration opportunities shows the proponents have a good understanding of landscape heterogeneity and are taking a systematic approach to the problem. Especially critical has been the increasing inclusion of specific "effectiveness monitoring" metrics and work elements. These are important to demonstrate whether the various conservation efforts, e.g., weed removal, bullfrog removal, controlled burns, etc. have improved or changed the habitat as a course-filter effect. Ultimately, future efforts will need to increasingly include fine-filter (specific population responses) monitoring. 4. M&E The sophisticated analyses of the Bradshaw's lomatium at Willow Creek indicated that proper data are being collected and analyzed for adaptive management.

In some cases, appropriate measures of success are stated (e.g., measures of success for controlled burns are stated to come from monitoring of listed plant species, photo-monitoring of plots, and surveys of breeding birds and butterflies. This is appropriate monitoring to assess biological objectives, but results are not given in the response, though they are stated to be available in preliminary form in annual reports. The ISRP received a large amount of relevant data including graphs, which indicates meaningful data is being collected for the series of projects. These analyzed data become important in future decision making processes, and provide a measure of project progress. Some summary quantitative reporting of such information, including interpretation (statement of what the project proponents think it means relative to their project's actions and goals), is what is needed in future proposals for continuing funding of an ongoing project. In future reviews the ISRP will look for better analysis/summarization of the data and application of those results to management.