We investigated the relative role of manager traits and decisions for explaining the impact of riparian restoration. To do this, we used the difference in vegetation between post-restoration and controls for 243 pairs of sites to create a success index. We then determined how much variability in success could be explained by physical variables that directly impact vegetation (environment and weed removal) versus human variables (characteristics of the people who managed those sites and their management decisions). More than 60% of the variability in vegetation change could be explained, with human variables increasing adjusted R-square values of physical-only models by an average of 47%. Restoration “success” was positively associated with an increase in the number of collaborators, the number of information sources used, and the relative priority of plant-related goals. Worse outcomes were associated with an increase in the number of roles the manager held, monitoring frequency, and with higher manager education level. These results point to the indirect impacts of the human element, and specifically supports recommendations to include multiple partners and set specific goals. To our knowledge, this is the first time the importance of human characteristics as drivers of restoration outcomes has been quantified.

我们调查了经理特质和决策的相对作用，以解释河岸恢复的影响。为此，我们使用了243对站点恢复后和控件之间的植被差异来创建成功指数。然后，我们确定成功的可变性可以由直接影响植被（环境和杂草清除）的物理变量与人为变量（管理这些地点的人的特征及其管理决定）来解释。可以解释超过60％的植被变化变异性，人类变量将仅物理模型的调整后R平方值平均提高了47％。恢复“成功”与协作者数量，使用的信息源数量的增加呈正相关，以及与植物相关的目标的相对优先级。较差的结果与管理者担任的角色数量增加，监控频率以及更高的管理者教育水平相关。这些结果表明了人为因素的间接影响，并特别支持包括多个合作伙伴和设定特定目标的建议。据我们所知，这是人类特征作为恢复结果驱动因素的重要性的第一次。