2.  Four Main Sections:  (a) Plan (Unit Level) Monitoring Program  (b) Broader Scale Monitoring Strategies  (c) Timing & Process  (d) Biennial Evaluation of Monitoring Information

3.  Enables Responsible Official (RO) to determine if changes are needed in plan components or other plan content  Must be coordinated with:  Regional Forester, S&PF and R&D  Local governments, states, and other Federal agencies  Non-governmental and multi-party monitoring May be jointly developed for two or more units

4. Broader Scale (Greater Yellowstone Area) Unit Level (Shoshone NF)

5. o Primarily made up of monitoring questions and associated indicators o Based on Plan components (desired conditions, objectives, standards, guidelines & land suitability) o Questions are designed to: o Test assumptions o Track changes o Measure management effectiveness in achieving or maintaining desired conditions or objectives

6. 1)Status of select watershed conditions 2)Status of select ecological conditions (terrestrial & aquatic) 3)Status of focal species (related to 219.9 Diversity) 4)Status of ecological conditions (see 219.9) related to T&E, candidate, and conservation concern species

7. 5) Status of visitor use, satisfaction & meeting recreation objectives 6) Changes due to climate change and other stressors 7) Progress toward meeting DC’s & objectives (including multiple-use opportunities) 8) Effects of mgmt systems on land productivity

8.  Developed by Regional Forester  Address plan monitoring questions best answered at a scale broader than one plan area  Coordinated with R&D, S&PF, partners, and public  May include multiple regions  Must be financially and technically feasible  Must complement other ongoing monitoring efforts

9.  Forest Plans developed under prior rules must update the monitoring program to comply with new rule within 4 years  RF’s must develop broader-scale strategies ASAP  Both monitoring levels must take into account:  existing inventory, monitoring and research programs  opportunities for multi-party monitoring  Opportunities to work together with Indian tribes

10.  Include information from both unit and broad scale monitoring  Must be documented in a written report available to public  First evaluation must be done within 2 years following plan approval or adoption of updated monitoring program  Must include decision on need to change the Plan, mgmt activities or monitoring program

11.  Developing meaningful monitoring questions and indicators  Assessing progress toward achieving desired conditions  Integrating unit monitoring with broad scale monitoring  Assessing all required monitoring areas to various degrees  Establishing and conducting broad scale assessments  Incorporating monitoring needs of multiple Regions  Providing opportunities for multi-party monitoring  Engaging the public and other government entities  Identifying trends for use in biennial evaluations

12.  Help Forests and Regions improve monitoring designs and data analyses by providing nationally consistent tools  Help Forests to better document their monitoring needs  Increase the ability of the Agency to inform decisions and adaptively manage resources based on statistically sound information  Help “Old Rule” Forests develop new monitoring programs (4 year requirement)