It is of critical importance to assess site specific conditions and determine explicit management goals prior to implementing management activities. These will dictate the best treatment methods and sequences for achieving success, as well as the best monitoring protocols to measure progress. Only then can adaptive management be truly implemented, where monitoring results inform subsequent management activities, and are adapted accordingly. Consistent documentation of management goals, treatments implemented and monitoring results not only will improve management at the site scale, but it also allows these data to be easily shared to inform a broader management and restoration community. Compiling site level data across many sites may also have implications at larger landscape scales. Coordinated landscape-, regional- and site scale management and learning are needed for optimal management of Phragmites throughout Saginaw Bay.