Whole Systems

Collaboration

Goal Setting

Funding Management and Restoration

Regional Context

MONITORING AND ADAPTING

Optimism for the Future

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To determine if the strategies achieve ecosystem sustainability, someone must monitor. To do this requires a commitment to design, finance, and adapt over the long term.
The most effective monitoring programs would generate information on effects at several spatial scales. For instance, the distributed forest conditions strategy attempts to achieve a desired regional condition by implementing treatments incrementally at the watershed level. Monitoring only within watersheds where treatment has proceeded will not answer how well the strategy is achieving the regional condition.
Monitoring a strategys results relative to its goals is a necessary part of adaptive management. An open process is necessary to build trust; without it, monitoring can fuel conflict rather than reduce it. In many instances, no single agency or group is available that will be considered impartial by all stakeholders, in part, because values influence interpretation as well as methods. Building trust in monitoring processes requires agreement on the choice of methods and multi-stakeholder (or multi-party) involvement. With particularly sensitive issues, all-party participation in monitoring may also be required.
Decision processes must incorporate specific mechanisms for changing the direction of the policy or project. Monitoring data that highlight inadequacies is of little use without a concomitant process for shifting strategies or reallocating resources. The need for institutional flexibility is particularly important. For example, in addressing issues related to the fire ecosystems of the Sierra, unexpected catastrophic fires may quickly change the context of ecosystem management by reducing old growth, degrading watershed condition, or creating new options for fuel management.
The importance of monitoring argues for the establishment of a broadly based convenor to facilitate range- and regionwide coordination. Organization of such a groupwhether it arises at the local, regional, or Sierra-wide levelmust be structured to fit the need. However construed, it ought to be collaborative in nature, to be authoritative in charge, and to focus on monitoring local conditions for achievement of rangewide goals and strategies. Such a group, for example, could help to assemble information in the year 2000 to examine improvements or changes in the following:

Other emerging issues

Also inherent in the strategies is a need for a central caretaker of information to develop and maintain data pertinent to rangewide monitoring and planning. A manager would have responsibility for organizing and synthesizing local databases as part of rangewide systems and would ensure coordination of distributed databases. Decentralized input of information, as well as access to existing data sets, could be obtained through the Internet, with public access available on-line or through public terminals at libraries and other public locations. Decentralized information also would facilitate a system whereby public agencies and others could provide appropriate tools and expertise, together with training on how to employ these technologies, that would enable local governments, other public agencies, and individual citizens to use these sources of information in ecosystem planning and monitoring.