Two EPA-funded workshops, held on October 28, 1995 and January 25-26, 1996, provided a conceptual framework and methodologies for developing a set of indicators to guide restoration efforts for the San Francisco Bay-Delta-River ecosystem.  This ecosystem is comprised of the watersheds of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, their delta, and the San Francisco Bay.  Workshop findings were published in the June 1996 report, Restoration of the San Francisco Bay-Delta-River System:  Choosing Indicators of Ecological Integrity (prepared by Levy, Young, Fujita and Alevizon on behalf of the Environmental Defense Fund, The Bay Institute of San Francisco, and the UC Berkeley Center for Sustainable Resource Development).  The report defined ecological integrity in an operational way and made an initial identification of appropriate indicators for measuring that integrity.  Its conclusions have been used by the CalFed Program in its deliberations and may help to focus CalFed’s adaptive management plans.

The October 28 workshop built upon previously identified operational definitions of ecological integrity for the Bay-Delta-River ecosystem, and sought to learn from the experiences of restoration efforts in other aquatic systems in the US and overseas.  A primary objective of the one-day workshop was to better identify and define a suite of scientifically defensible indicators that would, in concert, be a useful tool in assessing the health or integrity of the system.  A common basis and language for defining ecological indicators would also be developed through this process.

Minutes from October 28, 1995 workshop

Minutes from January 25-26, 1996 workshop