Planet Healers logo

Planet Healers

● Offline
Back to Library

Restoration Project Planning Template

From Degraded Site to Recovery, a Step-by-Step Framework.

Planet Healers.

"The land has preferences. This template helps you listen to them."

How to Use This Template

This template takes you through six stages of restoration planning, from the first walk on a new site through your year-one review. It is designed to be filled in by hand or digitally, revisited as your understanding of the site deepens, and used as a living reference throughout the project. It is not a bureaucratic checklist. It is a structured way of asking the questions that matter before you act, so that your interventions are rooted in what the land actually needs rather than what you assume it needs. Work through the stages in order on a new site. On an established project, use individual stages as review tools. No stage should take longer than a single field visit to complete: the template asks for observation and honest assessment, not exhaustive data collection. Perfect is the enemy of good in restoration planning: a completed rough assessment beats an unfinished detailed one every time.

STAGE 1: SITE CONTEXT

Complete before your first walk; about 30 minutes.

1.1 Basic Site Information

  • Site name or designation
  • Location (address, GPS, or description)
  • Total area (hectares or acres)
  • Land ownership and tenure:
    • Private (owner)
    • Community or cooperative
    • Government or public land
    • NGO or conservation organization
    • Other
  • Who has decision-making authority over this land?
  • Is restoration explicitly permitted or supported by the landowner or manager?
    • Written agreement
    • Verbal agreement
    • Unclear (needs clarification)
    • No (permission must be sought)

1.2 Historical Land Use

Understanding history is the first step in understanding current conditions.

  • Primary land use in the last 20 years:
    • Agricultural crop (type)
    • Livestock grazing (animal type)
    • Timber or forestry
    • Urban or industrial
    • Already under some conservation management
    • Unknown or mixed
    • Other
  • What was this land before conversion, if known:
    • Forest (type)
    • Wetland or riparian
    • Prairie, grassland, or savanna
    • Shrubland
    • Unknown
    • Has always been in human use within living memory
  • Key historical disturbances:
    • Fire (last known occurrence)
    • Drainage or channelization
    • Heavy machinery or compaction
    • Herbicide or pesticide application
    • Invasive species introduction
    • Erosion or soil loss
    • Flood or inundation
    • Other
  • Sources of historical information:
    • Google Earth historical imagery
    • Local community or elder knowledge
    • Land registry or government records
    • Aerial photo archives
    • Previous ecological assessments
    • Personal observation over time

1.3 Surrounding Landscape

  • What is immediately adjacent to this site (north, south, east, west)?
  • What is the nearest intact or semi-intact native ecosystem (type and distance)?
  • Are there native seed sources within dispersal distance?
    • Yes (species likely to naturally recruit)
    • Uncertain
    • No (site is highly isolated, active seeding or planting required for most species)
  • Key connectivity questions: does this site connect to other natural areas, creating a corridor? Are there wildlife movement routes crossing this site?

STAGE 2: SITE ASSESSMENT

Complete during your first site walk; 2 to 4 hours on site.

2.1 Soil Assessment

Assess at a minimum three points across the site, one in each distinct zone.

  • Infiltration test (see the Species Guide for method): time to drain at each zone. Overall:
    • Good (under 5 min)
    • Moderate (5 to 15 min)
    • Poor (over 15 min)
  • Soil texture (pick up moist soil, roll in palm):
    • Sandy (falls apart, gritty)
    • Loamy (holds shape loosely, smooth and gritty)
    • Clay (holds shape firmly, sticky, ribbon-forming)
    • Variable across site
  • Compaction (probe penetration depth before significant resistance):
    • Severe (under 10 cm)
    • Moderate (10 to 20 cm)
    • Low (over 20 cm)
  • Organic matter (surface layer):
    • Rich (dark, crumbly, smells living)
    • Moderate
    • Poor (pale, thin)
    • Bare or crusted
  • Soil smell:
    • Earthy or geosmin (healthy biology)
    • Neutral or little smell (reduced biology)
    • Ammonia or anaerobic (stressed biology)
  • Earthworms per shovel of soil (wet conditions), by zone.
  • Soil priority issues:
    • Compaction requiring intervention
    • Low organic matter requiring amendment
    • Drainage problems
    • Erosion risk
    • Chemical contamination suspected
    • pH imbalance suspected
    • None (soil in reasonable condition for planting)

2.2 Water Assessment

  • Drainage pattern: which direction does water flow across the site? Sketch or describe.
  • Evidence of water problems:
    • Erosion channels or rilling
    • Sediment fans or deposition zones
    • Standing water in zones that should drain
    • Dry zones that should retain moisture
    • Stream or waterway showing bank erosion
    • None identified
  • Wet zones (seasonal or permanent moisture): location, extent, and indicator plants present (sedges, rushes, willows).
  • Seasonal water behaviour, from observation or local knowledge.
  • Water priority issues:
    • Erosion requiring intervention
    • Drainage improvement
    • Water retention or infiltration improvement
    • Riparian or wetland restoration opportunity
    • None

2.3 Vegetation Assessment

  • Overall site condition:
    • Severely degraded (bare soil, dominant invasives, minimal native cover)
    • Moderately degraded (some native species, significant invasive pressure)
    • Lightly degraded (native community present, some opportunities)
    • Good condition (primarily needs protection and management)
  • Dominant plant species: list the five most abundant, and whether each is native, introduced, or unknown.
  • Native species present: list all identified.
  • Problem invasives present: species, coverage percentage, and priority (high, medium, low).
  • Evidence of natural regeneration (native seedlings recruiting without planting): yes (species) or no.
  • Successional stage:
    • Bare or pioneer (early disturbance)
    • Annual and biennial dominated
    • Perennial herbaceous establishing
    • Shrub encroachment or early woody
    • Young woodland or forest
    • Mature canopy present
  • Reference ecosystem for this site (what should it be?), and the nearest reference site visited.

2.4 Wildlife and Biodiversity Assessment

  • Birds observed during the site visit.
  • Evidence of mammals (tracks, scat, browse, burrows).
  • Insects observed.
  • Any species at risk or of conservation significance observed or likely.
  • Overall biodiversity:
    • Low (few species, dominated by generalists)
    • Moderate (some diversity and habitat complexity)
    • Good (diverse community, some specialist species)

2.5 Site Assets and Opportunities

Every degraded site has something to build from. Identify yours:

  • Remnant native species (individuals or patches with recovery potential)
  • Intact soil zones (where soil biology may be recovering)
  • Natural seed sources on or adjacent to site
  • Existing structural features (rock outcrops, woody debris, water features)
  • Other assets

STAGE 3: GOALS AND PRIORITIES

Complete after your first assessment; revisit after 3 months.

3.1 Restoration Vision

  • In one sentence, what does success look like for this site in 10 years?
  • Who does this restoration serve?
    • Native biodiversity (target species or communities)
    • Landowner or community livelihood
    • Water quality or watershed health
    • Carbon sequestration
    • Climate resilience, shade, cooling
    • Education and connection to nature
    • Cultural or spiritual significance
    • Other

3.2 Priority Actions, Year One

The first year is about foundation, not completion. Be realistic. Name the top three actions this year in order of priority, and why each comes first, second, third. Also name what you are NOT doing this year, and why.

3.3 Success Indicators

How will you know the project is working? Choose three to five specific, observable indicators, and for each note how it is measured and how often.

STAGE 4: SPECIES SELECTION

Complete after establishing goals; revisit seasonally.

4.1 Selection Principles

Before listing species, confirm these foundations:

  • I have identified a local seed or plant source for each species (within 50 km if possible).
  • I have confirmed native and non-invasive status for each species in this region.
  • Each species matches the actual site conditions (soil, moisture, light).
  • I have included species for at least three structural layers (ground, shrub, canopy if appropriate).
  • I have included species that provide food and habitat across seasons.

4.2 Species List

Build the list by layer, noting source, site zone, and planting season for each:

  • Layer 1, ground cover and herbaceous (target 5 to 10 species).
  • Layer 2, shrubs and understory (target 3 to 5 species).
  • Layer 3, canopy trees, if appropriate (target 2 to 5 species).
  • Pioneer or nurse species for severely degraded sites (remove or manage as canopy establishes).

4.3 Invasive Management Plan

Address invasives before planting whenever possible. Native plants cannot establish against heavy invasive pressure. For each priority invasive, note the method (manual removal, targeted cut and treat, smothering or mulch, grazing management), timing, frequency, and notes.

Common mistakes to avoid:

  • Do not remove all invasive cover at once if the site has no soil protection; you will create bare soil that invasives recolonize faster than natives establish.
  • Do not use herbicides near water or on slopes without expert assessment.
  • Do not remove woody invasives in spring during bird nesting season.

STAGE 5: IMPLEMENTATION CALENDAR

Plan by season, not by month. Seasons vary by region. For Year One, plan tasks, people needed, and materials for each window:

  • Dry season or pre-planting
  • Wet season onset or planting window (with a target number of plants or seeds)
  • Mid-season or establishment
  • Dry season or maintenance

Resources and budget:

  • Labour sources:
    • Self or family
    • Volunteers
    • Paid crew
    • Work exchange or interns
  • Plant material sources:
    • Self-propagated
    • Local nursery
    • Seed collection
    • Other
  • Approximate Year One budget: plant material, tools and materials, labour if paid, other, total.
  • Funding sources:
    • Landowner or self-funded
    • Conservation authority grant
    • Government program
    • NGO funding
    • Community fundraising
    • Carbon or ecosystem-services payment
    • Other

STAGE 6: MONITORING AND YEAR-ONE REVIEW

The most neglected and most important stage. Set up the system before planting, not after.

6.1 Photo Points

Establish permanent photo points before any work begins. A photo point is a fixed location from which you photograph the same view at regular intervals; it is the single most powerful and cost-free monitoring tool available. For each point, record location, compass bearing, and GPS or landmark. Set a photo schedule (monthly, quarterly, seasonally, or at each major event) and a storage and backup plan.

6.2 Biodiversity Monitoring

  • iNaturalist project name and baseline observation count (before restoration work), and a target observation frequency.
  • Bird monitoring: a monthly dawn walk with a route description and a starting species count.
  • Vegetation transects: fixed lines across representative zones, with start and end points and a monitoring frequency.

6.3 Year-One Review

Complete at 12 months and use it to adapt the plan for Year Two. Record:

  • Survival rate of planted material by species (planted, surviving, percent)
  • Natural recruitment observed
  • Progress on invasive management (better than expected, as expected, worse than expected)
  • The biggest surprise
  • The biggest challenge
  • What the land is telling you that you didn't expect
  • Three adjustments to the Year Two plan based on Year One observations

Keep a running space for field notes, unexpected findings, and observations that don't fit the categories above.

Additional Resources

  • For site assessment methodology: Reading Your Landscape, and Fundamentals of Ecosystem Restoration.
  • For species selection: How to Read the Living World Around You (the Species Guide).
  • For professional support: private consultation with Paul Morris and Sophia Ortiz (planethealers.org), and skill stays and apprenticeships.
  • For peer support and community review of your plan: the Planet Healers community.
Back to Library