Wildlife Monitoring Enhances Natural Resource Damage Assessment

Project Summary

A multiple–lines–of–evidence approach brings ecological reality to NRDA proceedings.

To strengthen an already robust natural resource damage assessment with real-world ecological observations, Integral deployed passive acoustic monitors, trail cameras, and drone surveys across a New Jersey site under litigation. This comprehensive monitoring program augmented existing chemistry and toxicity data with documented evidence of wildlife diversity and habitat quality, moving the NRDA proceedings beyond literature-based assessments to a multiple–lines–of–evidence approach grounded in ecological reality. 

Location: New Jersey

Challenge

Moving beyond paper-based injury assessments to document actual ecological conditions at the site. 

While our team had already compiled substantial chemistry and toxicity data for the natural resource damage assessment, we recognized the value of augmenting this technical information with direct observations of the wildlife community actively using the site. Traditional NRDA proceedings often rely heavily on literature-based theoretical models of ecological injury. However, documenting the actual species present and habitat conditions provides a more complete picture of the site’s ecological status. The challenge was implementing a monitoring program within the constraints of ongoing litigation, including site access restrictions and court scheduling requirements that limited our data collection window. 

Our Role

Integral implemented a multiple–lines–of–evidence approach using acoustic monitors, trail cameras, and drone surveys to document wildlife diversity and habitat quality. 

Our ecological team deployed passive acoustic monitors—technology new to NRDA applications—alongside trail cameras to continuously document bird and mammal communities across the site. We also supervised drone surveys to map habitat distribution throughout the entire site area. This multifaceted monitoring approach operated within the site’s access limitations while our team used sophisticated postprocessing techniques, including Kaleidoscope software and cluster analysis, to efficiently identify species from the extensive acoustic data set. By combining these field observations with existing remedial investigation data, we built a comprehensive assessment of the site’s ecological condition based on multiple, independent lines of evidence. 

What We Delivered

Our monitoring program documented diverse wildlife communities and favorable habitat conditions, providing ecological context that enhanced the overall NRDA. 

The passive monitoring systems and drone surveys successfully documented species characteristic of the region’s habitats, confirming the site’s ability to support wildlife diversity and abundance. Our findings revealed an array of favorable habitat features distributed across different wetland types throughout the site. These field observations, when integrated with the existing chemistry and toxicity data from the remedial investigation, provided multiple lines of evidence demonstrating the site’s ecological functionality.  All findings were compiled and integrated into Ms. Durda’s expert report as an additional line of evidence for assessing natural resource damages.

The Result

This approach transformed the NRDA proceedings from a theoretical, literature-based exercise into an assessment grounded in documented ecological reality, strengthening the scientific foundation of the damage evaluation.