New tools available for monitoring support and analysis
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The recently released National Forest System Monitoring Policy (Forest Service Manual 2040) aligns monitoring, partnerships and information-sharing efforts to help land managers monitor changes related to stressors and resource conditions affecting National Forest System lands. Having this data and information aligned improves land managers’ ability to and make timely, informed, science-based decisions within staffing and budget constraints.
To support implementation of the new policy, the Ecosystem Management Coordination Adaptive Management, Monitoring, and Analysis staff communicated with national programs, regions, forests and research stations to identify monitoring and reporting challenges and develop solutions together.
Monitoring challenges shared included difficulty knowing what monitoring questions to use, ability to pull and analyze data, and the lack of capacity to fulfill monitoring commitments. To address these challenges, national staff developed new and innovative monitoring, analysis and support tools including responses to common monitoring questions, monitoring indicator evaluations, and a monitoring and assessment protocol repository.
These new tools directly support local land managers as they strategically consider what questions to ask and which data to analyze. The tools also inform adaptive land management decision-making and coordination with partners and enable forests to comply with 2012 planning rule monitoring requirements more efficiently. This addresses local challenges of knowing what monitoring questions to use and extracting and analyzing data and, also, helps streamline reporting. The information learned through monitoring and reporting will improve local and large-scale project planning.
At a national level work is also underway to establish an online monitoring and assessment protocol repository to increase consistent use of data-collection protocols, strengthen the quality of national data sets, and support data sharing across boundaries and agencies to improve overall consistency at a landscape level. Input about existing practices and emerging needs will be gathered at the national, regional and field levels through a phased approach and may be solicited through surveys, listening groups or other methods.
For more information about these efforts, visit the Adaptive Management, Monitoring and Analysis SharePoint site or Adaptive Management, Monitoring and Analysis website or contact Mara Alexander.