We often have little evidence of success to take to stakeholders in the preliminary stages of restoration projects. However, presenting initial monitoring data can allow for impactful science communication and stakeholder engagement around the early progress of restoration. We use reforestation monitoring in the Paulins Kill watershed to highlight the value associated with considering stakeholder communication upfront when designing monitoring schemes and presenting initial monitoring data. Primarily, four generalizable recommendations emerge to help guide practitioners considering initial data within common environmental communication techniques and platforms: (1) for oral presentations: consider long-term data for context around initial monitoring data; (2) for online databases: isolate factors that should not change to assess initial monitoring confidence; (3) for mapping platforms: focus on differences rather than magnitudes in initial monitoring data; (4) for field trips: use the initial monitoring itself to directly engage stakeholders.