Forest Monitoring and Management Indicators
The Forest Service in Region 5 is attempting to sidestep one of the most important tools the public has for gauging management impacts and environmental health. The monitoring of wildlife species including sensitive species and management indicator species one of the few ways land managers can be held accountable for the effects of their decisions. Monitoring has long been the under-funded "step-child" of the forest planning process until recently when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of environmental plaintiffs on two key cases in California. The Red Star Fire Salvage and the Power and Fred's Fire Salvage cases affirm that forest plan monitoring for habitat and population trends is the law. Region 5 is now attempting to circumvent important monitoring requirements in the 2001/2004 Sierra Nevada Framework by amending the forest plans of the 11 Sierra Nevada national forests to significantly weaken forest monitoring requirements.
To find out more:
Visit the Forest Service's Management Indicator Species website.
Read Sierra Forest Legacy's Comment letter on the proposed MIS Amendment, PDF. (WHERE to PUT PDF IN NEW SITE)
Read Forest Monitoring Scientific Papers, PDF's.
A Field-Based Evaluation of a Presence-Absence Protocol for Monitoring Ecoregional-Scale Biodiversity - Manley et.al. (WHERE to PUT PDF IN NEW SITE)
Evaluation of a Multiple-Species Approach to Monitoring Species at the Ecoregional Scale - Manley et.al. (WHERE to PUT PDF IN NEW SITE)