Closing the Monitoring-to-Decision Gap: Translating Pooled Monitoring Research into Actionable Tools
Sadie Drescher
Mimi Abdu
Chesapeake Bay Trust
Annapolis, MD
Evaluating the performance of stream and stormwater restoration practices remains a central challenge for watershed practitioners and decision-makers. Over the past decade, the Pooled Monitoring Initiative has pioneered a regional, demand-driven research framework that aligns key questions from regulatory, practitioner, and scientific communities with rigorous scientific investigations. By pooling funding across agencies and partners, this initiative has generated a suite of targeted studies addressing cumulative impacts, comparative effectiveness of practices, emerging contaminants, and (new as of 2025) the role of social factors in restoration adoption. These studies have advanced understanding of restoration performance and informed regulatory and adaptive management decisions. At the same time, across the Chesapeake Bay watershed, billions of dollars have been invested in restoration practices, increasing the urgency of understanding which approaches work best under varying site and watershed conditions.
Despite this progress, a persistent challenge remains: translating rigorous monitoring research into accessible, actionable guidance for decision-makers to support broader adoption and impact. To address this translational gap, a recent contract under the Pooled Monitoring Initiative is synthesizing over ten years of research into communication products tailored to the needs of diverse decision-making audiences. This effort integrates extensive stakeholder engagement with science synthesis to co-design deliverables such as policy-ready briefs, interactive web tools and StoryMaps, one-page fact sheets, and technical guidance documents. These communication tools are intentionally structured to improve assessment interpretation, inform implementation decisions, and establish a clear feedback loop between research findings and on-the-ground restoration practice.
In this presentation, we will:
Describe the conceptual framework underpinning the Pooled Monitoring Initiative and its role in advancing restoration assessment and performance evaluation.
Summarize key monitoring and performance insights; and
Showcase how new communication products enhance the utility of monitoring data and research findings for practitioners, regulators, and policymakers. By linking empirical evidence with tailored decision-support tools, we aim to improve the transparency, relevance, and uptake of restoration performance information across the Chesapeake Bay watershed and beyond.
About Sadie Drescher
Sadie Drescher is Vice President of Programs for Restoration at the Chesapeake Bay Trust, where she leads restoration programs that support implementation projects, applied research, and innovative watershed and community engagement grant programs. Since joining the Trust in 2014, her work has focused on advancing watershed restoration and stormwater management through partnerships that support policy, training, and community engagement across the Chesapeake Bay region.
Prior to joining the Trust, Sadie was a watershed researcher and planner at the Center for Watershed Protection, where she helped develop watershed management strategies for local communities. She also previously worked in South Carolina’s coastal management program, at the USDA Center for Forested Wetlands, and as an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education fellow with the U.S. Department of Energy.
Sadie holds an M.S. in Environmental Studies from the College of Charleston and a B.S. in Environmental Biology from Tennessee Technological University.
About Mimi Abdu
Coming Soon