"Effectiveness monitoring studies to evaluate current BMPs under the Alaska Forest Resources and Practices Act document that the BMPs are protecting fish habitat and water quality from adverse impacts of forest operations in Southeast Alaska where the majority of harvesting has occurred. Additional monitoring is needed in southcentral and interior Alaska. The Division of Forestry continues to work with other agencies, landowners, and researchers, to prioritize monitoring needs."--Page 3

Provides an early warning of environmental change before irreversible loss has occurred. Monitoring is focused at 2 resource levels: individual species & specific ecosystem types. Selection of prospective indicators for the status of species or ecosystems is based on the development of conceptual models relating resource change to reliable, early warning signals of change. Ecosystems are monitored on the basis of critical structural & compositional elements that reflect the state of underlying ecological processes. Includes recommendations for staffing, funding, & establishing a long-term commitment for a large, interagency monitoring program. Includes, A Guide to Soil Sampling & Analysis on the Nat. Forests of the Inland NW U.S.Ó

The first book to critically examine how monitoring can be an effective tool in participatory resource management, Negotiated Learning draws on the first-hand experiences of researchers and development professionals in eleven countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. Collective monitoring shifts the emphasis of development and conservation professionals from externally defined programs to a locally relevant process. It focuses on community participation in the selection of the indicators to be monitored as well as community participation in the learning and application of knowledge from the data that is collected. As with other aspects of collaborative management, collaborative monitoring emphasizes building local capacity so that communities can gradually assume full responsibility for the management of their resources. The cases in Negotiated Learning highlight best practices, but stress that collaborative monitoring is a relatively new area of theory and practice. The cases focus on four themes: the challenge of data-driven monitoring in forest systems that supply multiple products and serve diverse functions and stakeholders; the importance of building upon existing dialogue and learning systems; the need to better understand social and political differences among local users and other stakeholders; and the need to ensure the continuing adaptiveness of monitoring systems.

There has been a long-standing interest in improving Best Management Practice (BMP) monitoring within and among states. States monitoring the implementation and effectiveness of BMPs for forest operations take a variety of approaches. This creates inconsistencies in data collection and how results are reported. Since 1990 attempts have been made to develop a consistent BMP reporting methodology; the attempts have met with varying degrees of success, utility, and acceptance. Traditional monitoring focused on individual BMPs in terms of prescriptive guidelines, but this approach created inconsistent monitoring methodologies. To improve consistency and allow a more universal method for BMP monitoring, the approach to developing the protocol, described herein, focuses on the underlying S2principlesS3 which guide the design and applicability of BMPs. Shifting emphasis to the underlying principles facilitates outcome or performance-based monitoring of BMPs, which is a more universal, less subjective, and more direct means of evaluating BMP performance for protecting water quality. In turn, repeatability is improved. In this paper we discuss the development process and initial testing of a consistent repeatable BMP monitoring protocol for timber harvesting activities adjacent to water bodies. The protocol could be applied across much of the United States.

Forest monitoring by terrestrial investigation has achieved a number of results in terms of infrastructure, enhanced international cooperation, development of methods, data, data quality, and capability to provide information. In addition, long-term monitoring data are increasingly requested by researchers and modelers. Despite these achievements, forest monitoring programs are facing increasing challenges related to a superimposed reduction in resources and a generalized loss of appeal and enthusiasm by policy and funding agencies. Although forest monitoring is a relatively young discipline, which has already evolved considerably, a further, rapid evolution is necessary. The next generation of monitoring programs should consider (i) identifying a wider range of users for monitoring information; (ii) expanding monitoring potential by means of connections with terrestrial and remotely based inventory, modeling, and research systems; (iii) adapting and further improving quality and coverage of data, information and reporting to fit specialized stakeholders; and (iv) enhanced global cooperation. Long-term commitment and financial support are necessary to secure continuity of operation, data collection, and maintenance of data series.