Land Management Plan Monitoring

Land Management Plan Monitoring is a specific application of inventory, monitoring, and assessment activities designed to answer these and similar questions:

• What are the effects of resource management activities on the productivity of the land?
• To what degree is on-the-ground management maintaining or making progress toward plan desired conditions and objectives?
• Is there a need to adjust the monitoring program to account for unexpected changes in conditions?

Specific RIG responsibilities apply to social, economic, and ecological topics, and include guidance for:

• Monitoring program design, planning, and management;
• Integration of monitoring programs;
• Standardization of appropriate program components;
• Information needs assessment processes;
• Accomplishment reporting; and,
• Quality assurance and control.

The Monitoring and Evaluation Framework to Support Land Management Planning guides the process of LMP monitoring by identifying the six themes and nine sub-elements that Forests and Grasslands should address to fulfill monitoring needs.

Purpose and Intent of Land Management Plan Monitoring

The purpose and intent of a Land Management Plan monitoring program are diagnostic and evaluative, focused and concise. Monitoring answers one overarching question:

Is there a need to develop a new plan or to change the existing plan?

A Land Management Plan monitoring program should facilitate understanding conditions and trends of a plan area’s key characteristics. A key characteristic responds to management actions in timely and meaningful ways that allow prompt recognition of a need to change. Generally, a need for change exists when progress towards desired conditions is inadequate, when intended contributions to sustainability are not occurring.

Forest Service Land Management Plan Monitoring Guidance

• TIPS: Technical Information for Planning
• National Forest System (NFS) Land Management Plan Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (2007)
• Local Unit Criteria and Indicators Development (LUCID)
• National Forest Management Act and Land Management Planning direction for National Forests and Grasslands
• Forest Service Environmental Management Systems (EMS)

Staff Contact

Tracy Connell Hancock
National Ecosystem Monitoring & Evaluation Coordinator
USDA Forest Service
Telephone: 202-205-1724