2012 National FIA-User-Group Meeting Baltimore, Maryland March 7-8, 2012

1. Broad Scale Monitoring and Assessment Efforts on Public and Private Lands Tony Tooke, USDA Forest Service Director, Ecosystem Management Coordination • 2012 National FIA-User-Group Meeting • Baltimore, Maryland March 7-8,2012 Photograph courtesy of NRCS

2. Discussion Outline • Background • Current Situation • Developing a Strategy for Improvements • Collaborative Opportunities and Next Steps

3. System Improvement Effort The Forest Service is using a collaborative approach to improve broad and national scale inventory, monitoring, and assessment (IM&A) activities across a gradient of landscapes. The improved system should be integrated, aligned, effective, and efficient in supporting priority business requirements of the Forest Service and partners.

4. IM&A System Improvement: Why Now? • Lack of a comprehensive system for managing IM&A activities • Environmental threats and evolving “business requirements” • Increasing need for collaboration and transparency. • Available resources are not likely to increase. • There is a need to be more proactive in assessing and managing risks and impacts.

5. Desired Condition of the IM&A System IM&A information, technology and/or processes: • Use the best available science (scientific credibility). • Are accessible and accurate. • Support an all-lands approach. • Are collaborative, transparent, timely, and useful. • Are based on national standards and processes developed with partners. • Are adaptive and responsive to changing conditions and business requirements.

6. Broad Scope of the IM&A System Address priority business requirements such as: • New Planning Rule (broad-scale monitoring) • Ecosystem / watershed health and sustainability • Adapting to a changing climate – Climate Change Scorecard • Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program • National & broad scale FS and partner assessments • Sustainable forest management using Montreal Process indicators

7. Monitoring in Proposed Land Management Planning Rule 36 CFR Part 219 National Forest System Land Management Planning

8. Framework in Proposed Land Management Planning Rule Collaboration is required throughout all phases of the framework

9. Approach • Define priority business requirements of the Forest Service and those shared with partners. • Identify the associated core management questions. • Improve the IM&A system to focus on delivering the information that answers those core management questions.

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11. What we’ve learned • We are successfully using collaborative learning approaches to identify core monitoring questions. • We are encouraged by the degree of common information needs across a diverse range of social, economic, and ecological conditions. • The journey, taken together, is as important as the destination.

12. IM&A System Improvement Strategy The Journey Where we’ve been and where we are: • Sensing questionnaire and leadership interviews • Roundtable: Internal and external partners • Steering Committee and Core Team • Case Studies • Briefing and feedback sessions • IM&A Strategy

13. Draft IM&A StrategyThree Goals • INCLUDE all lands and all partners • Provide CREDIBLE information. • Effectively RESPOND and ADAPT.

14. IM&A Case Studies Purpose: To help identify system-wide IM&A improvements, implementation actions, and “early wins.” Initial Focus Areas: • Critical loads of air pollution • Aquatics inventory and monitoring • Vegetation status and trends • Carbon assessment and management • Land management plan (LMP) broad-scale monitoring

15. Working with Partnersand Stakeholders Photos courtesy of NRCS and the Alliance of Aquatic Resource Monitoring, Dickinson College

16. Next Steps • IM&A Strategy review and refinement • Implementation Actions • High priority • Early wins • Measuring progress Collaboration with partners will continue as we move through implementation

17. Questions