The lack of monitoring translates into a lack of ability to achieve management goals past the immediate prescription. Although managers have relied on a qualitative sense of progress or decline in the ecosystems under their care, efficient management and effective restoration will require the ability to know in quantitative terms the degree to which a goal has been achieved. Below, three of the primary management and restoration goals articulated by the professional managers contacted for this review are discussed, with reference to the literature where appropriate. Brush removal was the most frequently mentioned benefit of wetlands burning mentioned by the four managers contacted. However Weller warns that, as a restoration tool, such burns are difficult to direct as well as to extinguish.
Much evidence supporting burning as a natural community restoration tool in wetlands is anecdotal.
However Susan Galatowitsch, a wetland scientist at the University of Minnesota, is concerned that the light-triggered germination of Phalaris gives it a considerable competitive edge over more desirable plant species following a wetland burn. The movement of restoration techniques and goals from upland to wetland sites may have taken place somewhat uncritically. However, restoration goals and techniques are very different in wetlands ecosystems, and there should be an emphasis on the determination of appropriate prescriptions for these goals. Waterfowl habitat appears to be well served by regular prescribed burning, although managers must realize that this goal will be in conflict with a goal of natural vegetation restoration due to differences in the seasonal time of burn appropriate for each purpose. In moderately degraded communities with patches of exotic grass or stands of brush, anecdotal evidence indicates that management with prescribed burns will be appropriate.