Declining federal budgets and shrinking specialist workforces on the Sierra Nevada national forests have affected their ability to implement monitoring programs. The challenge here is to design a monitoring system that can and will be implemented within likely budget and human resources. Broad-based convenors of monitoring and adaptive management programs, as well as central caretakers of data, are lacking in the Sierra Nevada. Basis for Inclusion Recognition of the need for effective and practical monitoring has increased in recent years, with emphasis on both predictive and retrospective monitoring. This in turn may serve as a foundation for integrating adaptive management into future forest management, and coordinating across broad geographic scales in addition to project-level monitoring.
Implementation is suggested at multiple scales, varying with the issue.
Because they were intended to be in effect only 2 years but have actually remained current for 5 years, their effectiveness, any undesired consequences to other ecological resources, and socioeconomic conditions, may be accruing but have not been comprehensively monitored. These values do not include the total revenue produced by resource-dependent activities, a figure that would be many times higher. Reinvestment in the ecosystems that produce the commodities and services is extremely low, given the costs of land and water management, conservation, and restoration. Virtually no return to ecosystems comes from water. 1996b, Doak and Kusel 1996.