Criteria and Indicators Building A Common Language for Monitoring Forest Sustainability in the Northeastern Area

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Criteria and Indicators Building A Common
Language for Monitoring Forest Sustainability in
the Northeastern Area
Terri Heyer, Watershed Program USDA Forest
Service, Northeastern Area State and Private
Forestry
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NA/NAASF Criteria and Indicators Effort

• Collaborative effort between NA and States
• Use Montreal Process CI framework
• Developed a base set of indicators
• Reporting on the forest sustainability
  indicators
• State and regional indicator information on-line
• Regional assessment reports every 5 years

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Collaborative effort between NA and States
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The Northeastern Area
Mission Lead and help support sustainable forest
management and use across the landscape to
provide benefits for the people of 20
Northeastern and Midwestern States and D.C.
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Sustainable Forest Management
The Role of the USDA Forest Service
Northeastern Area and State Forestry Agencies

• Implementation
• Criteria and indicators framework
• Inventory and monitoring
• Align programs
• Education and communication

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Sustainability Assessment Highlights for the
Northern United States
Purpose

• Raise general awareness of conditions in the
  Northern United States
• Summarize important points from technical report
  for policymakers, managers, and other
  stakeholders
• Available online http//www.na.fs.fed.us/
• sustainability

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Base Set of Forest Sustainability Indicators for
the Northeastern Area
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Development of Base Indicators

• Requested by the Northeastern Area Association of
  State Foresters
• Base set of indicators developed by a CI work
  group
• NA staff
• State forest resource planners

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Development of Base Indicators

• Started with the Montreal Process indicators
• CI work group also contributed potential
  indicators
• Indicator evaluation process, considering
• Scale appropriateness
• Reliability
• Feasibility
• Selected to span the Montreal Process Criteria

• Ability to measure over time
• Ease of analysis/interpretation
• Usefulness to audience

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Metrics and Data Sources for State and Regional
Monitoring
Comprehensive evaluation of data available
USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Area and
Northeastern Area Association of State Foresters
Base Indicators of Forest Sustainability
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NA/NAASF Base Indicators

• Criterion 3 Maintenance of Forest Ecosystem
  Health and Vitality
• 7. Area and percent of forest land affected by
  potentially damaging agents
• Criterion 4 Conservation and Maintenance of Soil
  and Water
• Resources
• 8. Soil quality in forested areas
• 9. Area and percent of forest land adjacent to
  surface water and area of forested land by
  watershed
• 10. Water quality in forested areas
• Criterion 5 Maintenance of Forest Contribution
  to
• Global Carbon Cycles
• 11. Forest ecosystem biomass and forest ecosystem
  carbon pools

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Reporting on the base indicators of forest
sustainability

• State and regional indicator information on-line
• Regional assessment reports every 5 years

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Sustainability Clearinghouse Currently Available

• To seek out and share information about
• Sustainable forestry
• The use of CI
• Ongoing NA/NAASF sustainability efforts

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Sustainability Clearinghouse Products

• List of 60 State, regional, and national
  sustainability efforts
• Sourcebook on CI
• Sustainability Assessment Highlights for the
  Northern US
• Publication on role of NA and NAASF in
  Sustainable Forest Management
• NA/NAASF Base Indicators of Forest
  Sustainability Metrics and Data Sources for
  State and Regional Monitoring

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NA Indicators Online Clearinghouse

• Database and Web application to store and report
  indicator data and other information
• Up-to-date State to regional data in user-
  friendly format (graphs, tables, maps)
• Induce States and others to consider
  sustainability in their own forest planning and
  management
• Available by fall 2005

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Draft Web TemplateHome Page
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Draft Web TemplateIndicator Page
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5-Year Sustainability Assessment Reports

• Summarize base indicator information to support
  the NA and NAASF strategic planning.
• Regional assessment of forest sustainability.
• Report the information indicator-by-indicator.
• Provide some analysis across the indicators for a
  more complete sustainability assessment.

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Upper Mississippi Regional RoundtableSoil and
Water Criteria comments

• Scale of data collection
• Accessibility of data and cost of data collection
• Examine the impacts of forests on soil and water
  parameters
• Measure amount of forest management as unmanaged
  forests have a greater potential for erosion
  problems
• Track changes over time
• Have goals to strive for otherwise how will we
  know when we have enough data?

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Upper Mississippi Regional RoundtableCarbon
Sequestraion Criteria comments

• Education-landowners not very knowledgeable, most
  information is too technical
• More than information, need specialists to work
  with landowners
• Make the link between active management and
  carbon uptake
• UM-floodplain processes, how does that impact
  carbon uptake?

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Summary
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We recognize that criteria and indicators are a
useful tool for monitoring forest sustainability.
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The USDA Forest Service Northeastern Area the
State foresters are using the Montreal Process
CI framework for sustainability reporting.
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The Northeastern Area worked with the 20 States
to develop a base set of forest sustainability
indicators.
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A vast array of NA regional and State level data
will be available online for the base indicators
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NA Sustainability Web site http//www.na.fs.fed.u
s/sustainability
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NA/NAASF Base Indicators

• Criterion 1 Conservation of Biological Diversity
• 1. Area of forest land relative to total land
  area and area of reserved forest land
• 2. Extent of area by forest type and by size
  class, age class, and successional stage
• 3. Degree of forest land conversion,
  fragmentation, and parcelization
• 4. Status of forest/woodland communities and
  species of concern (with focus on
  forest-associated species)
• Criterion 2 Maintenance of Productive Capacity
  of
• Forest Ecosystems
• 5. Area of timberland
• 6. Annual removal of merchantable wood volume
  compared to net growth

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NA/NAASF Base Indicators

• Criterion 6 Maintenance and Enhancement of
  Long-term Multiple
• Socio-economic Benefits to Meet the Needs of
  Societies
• 12. Value and volume of wood and wood products
  production, consumption, and trade
• 13. Outdoor recreational facilities and
  activities
• 14. Public and private investments in forest
  health, management, research, and wood processing
• 15. Forest ownership and land use (including
  acres of specially designated land)
• 16. Employment and wages in forest-related
  sectors
• Criterion 7 Legal, Institutional, and Economic
  Framework for
• Forest Conservation and Sustainable Management
• 17. Existence, type, and monitoring of forest
  management standards/guidelines
• 18. Existence, type, and frequency of
  forest-related planning, assessment, and policy
  review