Forest Plan Monitoring Programs

The U.S. Forest Service uses monitoring as the basis for continuous improvement of a land management plan (forest plan). Monitoring provides information for adaptive management of the area and resources within the planning area. The objectives for a forest plan monitoring program in an adaptive management framework include:

Creating a learning environment to support decisions.
Evaluating progress toward achieving desired conditions.
Enabling us to determine where changes may be needed in forest plan components, other plan content, and plan implementation strategies, including changes to the monitoring program.

Each forest plan has its own monitoring program. We use information gathered through the monitoring program to understand the effects of implementing the forest plan. A monitoring program helps us determine if a change may be needed to improve forest management.

The Region 5 Broader-scale Monitoring Strategy compliments the forest plan monitoring programs by providing results for questions that are shared across multiple Units. Results from our Broader-scale Monitoring Strategy can be found on our Region 5 Planning website.

Currently available Forest Plan Monitoring materials and reports are available at the links below. We are working with the other Forests in Region 5 to transition their Forest Plan Monitoring programs to be consistent with the 2012 Planning Rule.

Forest Plan Monitoring Guides and Reports (under construction)

Use the links below to access forest plan monitoring guides and reports.