The success of good forest stewardship depends on our ability to recognize the patterns inherent in ecosystems separate from those imposed by us. It is critical to learn how to recognize and optimize the natural regenerative processes of each forest stand, but how does one know what to look for?

A credible monitoring program serves as the voice of the forest, telling its story, ensuring that our actions are ultimately justified or invalidated by what happens on the ground. Monitoring, because it also helps to overcome the hurdle of time, compensates for the difficulty of observing the forest accurately in our own life spans. Monitoring is the best way to tailor the work we do to the specific conditions of the site. Monitoring also constitutes an integral component of sustainable forestry standards increasingly being applied on forest lands.

This workshop will focus on the use of a realistic process that identifies key indicators of forest conditions, which can be readily measured. The approach presented is based on three substantive ecosystem components with thirteen indicators of biodiversity and ecological integrity, which will be described in detail. Simple and economical monitoring methods will be demonstrated. The workshop will provide useful skills to all forest land managers.

The workshop will be led by Richard Hart, ecologist and soil scientist, who has an extensive background in western ecosystems and conducts numerous training sessions for forestry professionals, landowners, and third-party certified resource managers.

Abstract:

A workshop on biophysical monitoring will provide cost effective tools to track forest conditions and gauge the effectiveness of management approaches. Skills learned will be useful to forest land managers, especially those attempting to comply with current sustainable forestry standards.