Ecosystem restoration planning near the beginning of the site assessment and management process ("early integration") involves consideration of restoration goals from the outset in developing solutions for contaminated ecosystems. There are limitations to integration that stem from institutional barriers, few successful precedents, and limited availability of guidance. Challenges occur in integrating expertise from various disciplines and multiple, sometimes divergent interests and goals. The more complex process can result in timing, capacity, communication, and collaboration challenges. On the other hand, integrating the 2 approaches presents new and creative opportunities. For example, integration allows early planning for expanding ecosystem services on or near contaminated lands or waters that might otherwise have been unaddressed by remediation alone. Integrated plans can explicitly pursue ecosystem services that have market value, which can add to funds for long-term monitoring and management. Early integration presents opportunities for improved and productive collaboration and coordination between ecosystem restoration and contaminant assessment and management. Examples exist where early integration facilitates liability resolution and generates positive public relations. Restoration planning and implementation before the completion of the contaminated site assessment, remediation, or management process ("early restoration") can facilitate coordination with off-site restoration options and a regional approach to restoration of contaminated environments. Integration of performance monitoring, for both remedial and restoration actions, can save resources and expand the interpretive power of results. Early integration may aid experimentation, which may be more feasible on contaminated lands than in many other situations. The potential application of concepts and tools from adaptive management is discussed as a way of avoiding pitfalls and achieving benefits in early integration. In any case, there will be challenges with early integration of restoration concepts for contaminated ecosystems, but the benefits are likely to outweigh them. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2016;12:296-305.

Land use and climate change put many rare plant species at risk of extinction. Translocation of rare species within restoration projects may be essential for their future survival, but successful recruitment from translocated individuals can be difficult to achieve. Physaria obcordata and Physaria congesta are endemic to a narrow band of shale outcrops subject to intense energy development in the Piceance Basin (Colorado, U.S.A.). We examined approaches for establishing new populations of these critically imperiled species in suitable but unoccupied habitats within their endemic range by monitoring fall‐sown seeds and fall‐ or spring‐transplanted seedlings for 6 years. Because these species are obligately outcrossing and populations exhibit genetic clustering, we monitored three translocation sites near (<600 m, one cluster) and three far (>600 m, mixed clusters) from the existing conspecific populations. Seeding and spring transplanting were successful for P. congesta but fall transplants did not survive. P. congesta were more than twice as likely to survive in sites near existing populations. Seeding largely failed for P. obcordata but transplanting in either season performed equally well, especially in sites far from the existing populations. Transplants first flowered after 1 year and recruitment occurred after 3 years in both species. Recruitment continued in both species through 2021. Although these species share many life history traits and habitat requirements, we found they differ in important ways relevant to translocation and long‐term population viability. Our work highlights the importance of understanding the unique population ecology of even closely related rare species to improve the likelihood of successful conservation.