The goals for the South Slough Reserve Stewardship Program are to:

1. Manage and restore the habitats and ecosystem processes associated with the South Slough NERR using an adaptive management approach. 
2. Provide for a diversity of high quality estuarine and coastal habitats representative of the Lower Columbia biogeographic region. 
3. Collaborate with local, regional, and national agencies and organizations to address natural resource management issues affecting estuaries and coastal watersheds.

Responding to local, regional and global issues, the program is designed to address the above goals through specific actions that inform the management and advance the understanding of coastal ecosystems.  Habitat degradation, the introduction of invasive species, watershed health and management, and climate change are universal issues that have many local manifestations in the Pacific Northwest.  To address these and other issues the program has built upon its long history of habitat restoration, restoration monitoring and acquisition planning, to pursue broader and more integrative methods for watershed stewardship.  These methods will include the development and implementation of the following initiatives:

Priority Topics

A Framework for Watershed Stewardship
The Reserve is currently working to involve the local community and stakeholders in defining both existing and desired ecological conditions in the South Slough watershed, identifying science-based environmental indicators to monitor those conditions, and implementing a suite of management actions that can be used to address issues that may affect the health of the South Slough watershed. The Framework is intended to provide a non-confrontational process by which the South Slough NERR Management Commission, staff, and South Slough watershed residents and stakeholders can collectively address the Reserve’s obligation to protect designated lands from largescale, chronic, and/or long-term threats to order to maintain the integrity of the ecosystem.

Inquiry-Based Information Services
An integrated information gathering and sharing process, Inquiry-Based Information Services (IBIS), provides the Reserve with a new approach for applying staff, programs, and resources directly to natural resource management questions and information gaps articulated by the coastal decision-maker audiences. The IBIS builds on data collection and dissemination processes already used by Reserve staff by integrating Coastal Training Program outreach elements. A needs assessment will be used at the beginning of the process to ensure relevance and usefulness of the information being collected. Using decision-maker workshops and other outreach tools at the end of the process ensures efficiency and effectiveness of information sharing.

Land use and Resource Management Plans
Management actions by the Reserve are guided by a series of plans that have already been adopted or are currently in development.  They include:

• The Cooperative Plan for Watershed Conservation:  This plan is a guide for habitat acquisition by the Reserve within the context of local and regional conservation efforts. At present the administrative boundaries of the South Slough NERR do not adequately advance the NERRS goals of both representing estuarine habitat types for the Lower Columbia bioregion, and maintaining them as long-term sites for research and education. This plan provides guidance for achieving those goals through acquisition and conservation efforts.
• Habitat Restoration Plans:  Habitat restoration at the South Slough NERR is intended to improve the ecological integrity and representative character of the Reserve, provide habitat for threatened and endangered species, and address information gaps in the science of habitat restoration. These plans will establish the need for habitat restoration, identify restoration sites, and describe restoration strategies, priorities and timelines.
• Invasive Species Control Plan:  An Invasive Species Control Plan will identify the plant and animal species that most significantly affect the ecological integrity of the Reserve, as well as those affecting the South Slough and Coos watersheds. Because invasive species spread so readily and honor no boundaries, the plan will also address invasive species not yet present in the Coos estuary but which have the potential for becoming established.