TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3
Project Goals and Uses 3
Effectiveness Monitoring 3
I. INTRODUCTION 5
A. Project History and Purpose 5
History 5
Purpose 5
B. Scope and Uses of the Report 6
C. Acknowledgements 6
II. EFFECTIVENESS MONITORING 7
A. Introduction/Uses 7
B. Goals and Objectives 9
C. Methods 10
Step 1: Identify Project Scope 11
Step 2: Identify Focal Targets 11
Steps 3 & 4: Assess integrity 12
Step 5: Identify Land Health Issues 15
Step 6: Identify Objectives 16
Step 7: Identify Monitoring Priorities 17
D. Results 18
Project Scope 18
Focal Targets 18
Integrity Assessment 22
Land Health Issues 23
Objectives 26
Monitoring Priorities 26
E. Suggestions 26
Monitoring Methods, Status and Frequency 26
One Monitoring Framework for the San Juan Public Lands 44
Implementation/Next Steps 45
VI. PARTICIPANTS AND ROLES 47
VII. REFERENCES 48
FIGURES
1. Excerpt from USFS monitoring guidance (USDA Forest Service 2007a).
2. Process used to create, implement, and adapt the monitoring framework.
3. Scope of the project: San Juan Forest lands within the San Juan Planning Area.
4. Distribution of focal targets across San Juan Forest lands.
5. Intactness layer for the San Juan National Forest.
TABLES
1. Monitoring framework format.
2. Sample integrity assessment.
3. Sample summary of integrity.
4. Examples of stresses and sources of stress.
5. Sample summary of stresses and sources.
6. Criteria used to inform prioritization of monitoring indicators.
7. Crosswalk of SJPL Major Vegetation Types and the SJF Monitoring Framework Project focal targets.
8. Summary of focal and nested targets for San Juan Forest.
9. Integrity summary.
10. Summary of sources of stress to focal targets.
11. Number of indicators and distribution of priorities, by focal target, for San Juan Forest.
12. Distribution of focal targets by intactness category (in acres).
13. Crosswalk between focal targets for the USFS and BLM monitoring frameworks and the unified SJPL framework.
APPENDICES (Tabs)
1. Executive Summaries from Phases I and II of the San Juan Planning for Biodiversity Model Project.
2. CD with Excel CAP Workbook for San Juan National Forest, reflecting Workshop Products and Methods Recommendations.
3. Focal Targets and Nested Targets
4. Integrity Ranking Table
5. Stress and Source of Stress Ranking Tables
6. San Juan National Forest Monitoring Framework
7. NatureServe/Colorado Natural Heritage Program Global Conservation Status Ranks
8. Intactness Layer Methods and Results
9. Unified SJPL Monitoring Framework for Indicators
Citation: Oliver, A., M. Kram, T. Schulz, C. Pague, and K. Sochi. 2008. San Juan Forest Biodiversity Monitoring Framework Project. Prepared by The Nature Conservancy of Colorado. 50pp.
Cover photos: Peggy Lyon, Colorado Natural Heritage Program and Ann Oliver, The Nature Conservancy
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Project Goals and Uses
The San Juan Forest Monitoring Framework Project (SJF Monitoring Framework Project) is “a cooperative planning project to identify and prioritize indicators for monitoring the long-term health and viability of species, plant communities and systems on the San Juan National Forest Lands.” This set of prioritized indicators is collectively referred to hereafter as the “SJNF monitoring framework” and is modeled on a similar framework produced for the BLM-managed lands within the San Juan Planning Area under the San Juan Planning for Biodiversity Model Project, Phase II.
The SJF Monitoring Framework Project was developed based on an understanding and expectation of mutual benefits and mutual interests between the SJNF and TNC. These include:
· The Conservancy brings over 50 years of scientific expertise related to conservation planning and has completed ecoregional assessments across the West. The Conservancy will contribute expertise in evaluating the biodiversity of the planning area based on regional, ecoregional and local considerations and using the best available information. The Conservancy will also gain information from the Forest Service that will contribute to improvement of Conservancy ecoregional assessments.
· Collaborative conservation planning at local, regional and landscape scales offers the opportunity to address multiple at-risk species before they become federally listed.
· By considering biological information on local, landscape and regional scales, the Forest Service will be better able to identify appropriate land use decisions that will benefit all public interest on public land.
· Working together, the Conservancy and the Forest Service will stimulate efficient, effective and up-to-date planning which can result in the conservation and/or restoration of multiple species and habitats on public land.
· Successful elements of this joint process will be documented for potential application in other Forests and Grasslands.
Effectiveness Monitoring
This report presents the results of a two-day workshop that the Conservancy facilitated with San Juan Public Lands resource specialists to develop a monitoring framework: a prioritized menu of indicators for monitoring the integrity of key ecological features on USFS-managed lands within the San Juan Planning Area. The resulting monitoring framework, combined with the similar framework produced for BLM-lands within the planning area, can allow SJPL to strategically track biological resource health and can inform adaptive management efforts over the entire planning area.
Workshop participants identified key ecological features (“focal targets”) and the key species and communities (“nested targets”) that inhabit them on the San Juan Forest. The focal targets are consistent with the “Major Vegetation Types” that the San Juan Public Lands Center has mapped for planning purposes and include the following:
· Alpine
· Spruce-Fir and Cool-Moist Mixed Conifer Forest
· Montane Grasslands
· Aspen Forests
· Mixed Montane Shrublands
· Dry Mixed Conifer Forests
· Pinyon - Juniper Woodlands
· Semi-desert and Sagebrush Shrublands
· Upper Elevation Riparian, Aquatic and Wetland
· Lower Elevation Riparian, Aquatic and Wetland
· Lakes and Isolated wetlands
· Fens
Participants then identified indicators for assessing the integrity of these features; their current and desired condition; and the main impacts and risks affecting each feature. Finally, participants assigned priorities to the indicators to develop the monitoring framework. The resulting framework identifies a total of 139 potential indicators for major focal systems on the San Juan Forest. Ranking indicators as Low, Medium, High or Very High priority, workshop participants assigned priority to indicators as follows: 25 (18%) Low, 38 (27%) Medium, 66 (47%) High, and 10 (7%) Very High.
We offer suggestions for implementing effectiveness monitoring. We evaluated existing monitoring programs and their methods in order to assess the extent to which these programs can address the priority indicators in the framework. For 120 out of the total 139 (86%) potential monitoring indicators identified in the framework, there is some existing data collection being carried out by USFS or partners which could either be applied directly or adapted to track the status of the indicators.
However, for 11 High or Very High priority indicators there are currently no direct monitoring efforts. TNC suggests the Intactness Layer as an approach for measuring and tracking one of these: “Density of human infrastructure impacts.” In addition, we present a unified monitoring framework for the San Juan Public Lands as a whole, combining the high and very high priority indicators from the separate frameworks developed for BLM and USFS-administered lands. Finally we suggest next steps include developing protocols and an implementation plan, as well as a data management system for tracking and reporting on priority indicators.
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Project History and Purpose
History
The San Juan Public Lands Center (SJPLC) in Durango, Colorado is in the process of developing a land use plan to revise and replace the existing plans for the San Juan National Forest (SJNF) and the Columbine, Dolores and Pagosa Field Offices of the BLM. As an input to this effort, in 2004 BLM asked The Nature Conservancy of Colorado (TNC) to develop a conservation assessment of the San Juan Public Lands (SJPL) planning area.
This conservation assessment, known as the San Juan Planning for Biodiversity Model Project (“the San Juan Project”), was completed in two phases (Kram et al. 2005, Oliver et al. 2006). The San Juan Project was established on September 20, 2004 under BLM’s National Assistance Agreement (AA) with The Nature Conservancy (Cooperative Agreement #DAA020211). The Executive Summary of Phases 1 and 2 can be found in Appendix 1 and the full reports can be viewed online at http://conserveonline.org/workspaces/CO%20-%20San%20Juan%20Project.
One of the deliverables produced by the San Juan Project was a monitoring framework for the BLM-administered lands. This product identified a prioritized menu of monitoring indicators that BLM could employ for monitoring the viability of biodiversity resources.
Based on the model of the monitoring framework produced for the BLM lands within the San Juan Public Lands, the San Juan National Forest and The Nature Conservancy entered into a Participating Agreement (No. 07-PA-11021300-081) on September 4, 2007 (Appendix 2) to complete the San Juan Forest Biodiversity Monitoring Framework.
Purpose
The SJF Monitoring Framework Project is “a cooperative planning project to identify and prioritize indicators for monitoring the long-term health and viability of species, plant communities and systems on the San Juan National Forest lands.” This set of prioritized indicators is collectively referred to hereafter as the “SJNF monitoring framework.”
The SJF Monitoring Framework Project was developed based on an understanding and expectation of mutual benefits and mutual interests between the SJNF and TNC. These include:
· The Conservancy brings over 50 years of scientific expertise related to conservation planning and has completed ecoregional assessments across the West. The Conservancy will contribute expertise in evaluating the biodiversity of the planning area based on regional, ecoregional and local considerations and using the best available information. The Conservancy will also gain information from the Forest Service that will contribute to improvement of Conservancy ecoregional assessments.
· Collaborative conservation planning at local, regional and landscape scales offers the opportunity to address multiple at-risk species before they become federally listed.
· By considering biological information on local, landscape and regional scales, the Forest Service will be better able to identify appropriate land use decisions that will benefit all public interest on public land.
· Working together, the Conservancy and the Forest Service will stimulate efficient, effective and up-to-date planning which can result in the conservation and/or restoration of multiple species and habitats on public land.
· Successful elements of this joint process will be documented for potential application in other Forests and Grasslands.
B. Scope and Uses of the Report
The scope of this report is the San Juan Public Lands planning area (“the San Juan Planning Area” or SJPA”). The primary focus of the report is on the USFS-administered lands within the planning area. Components of this report can help USFS meet its mandates to consider biological resources and ecological values through land use planning, as specified in the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and the National Forest Management Act (36 CFR 219).
A primary use of the report is to inform and support the decisions that the San Juan Public Lands will make in the San Juan Resource Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement (RMP/EIS) with information based on scientific data and analyses. This information will allow those decisions to reflect the best available inventories, field based data and observations, and peer reviewed literature. Components of this report can inform the development of Alternatives, Desired Conditions, Affected Environment and Environmental Consequences chapters of the RMP/EIS, as well as the creation of monitoring and activity plans.
The products in this report also have post-plan usefulness. The report presents the results of a two-day workshop in which SJPL resource specialists and TNC biologists identified and prioritized key ecological attributes and appropriate indicators. The resulting monitoring framework, combined with a similar framework produced previously for BLM-administered lands within the planning area can allow SJPL to strategically track biological resource health, and inform adaptive management efforts over the entire planning area.
C. Acknowledgements
The Nature Conservancy would like to recognize numerous individuals for their help in the formation of this partnership and the creation of this report. Special thanks to Mark Stiles, San Juan Forest Supervisor/Public Lands Manager, for his continuing support of such cooperative efforts, and to Gary Thrash and Thurman Wilson for their leadership in developing this agreement, and their guidance and frank feedback in all phases of the project. Thanks to Jeff Redders for his thorough review and input in preparation for the January 8 and 9, 2008 workshop and many thanks to all the San Juan Public Lands resource specialists who made that workshop a successwith their participation and in-depth knowledge of the resources they manage.
Colorado Natural Heritage Program (CNHP) ecologists Peggy Lyon, Renee Rondeau, andStephanie Neid contributed invaluable on-the-ground knowledge, ecological expertise and data. The Nature Conservancy’s David Gann and Tim Sullivan provided support and review. Lastly, thanks to the core TNC team including Mike Babler, Megan Kram, Diana McDonald, Ann Oliver, Chris Pague, Terri Schulz, and Kei Sochi for managing the project, designing and conducting the Monitoring Framework Workshop and compiling and writing this report.
II. EFFECTIVENESS MONITORING
A. Introduction/Uses
Through a two-day workshop, San Juan Public Lands and TNC staff worked together to create a monitoring framework using a Conservancy-developed process called “Conservation Action Planning” (CAP). The purpose of the monitoring framework is to provide the basis for effectiveness monitoring and adaptive management.
The monitoring framework can helpUSFS meet its mandate to address biological resources and ecological values, as well as monitoring, through land use planning. These requirements are specified in the National Forest Management Act (NFMA)(36 CFR 219) and in the 1982 USFS Planning Rule, under which the San Juan National Forest is completing its current forest plan revision (USDI and USDA 2007). Specifically, the monitoring framework will help ensure the Forest Service’s conformance with the following:
· Requirement to provide for plant and animal diversity in land management plans, per U.S. Code 1604(g). National Forest System Land and Resource Management Plans. “The regulations shall include, but not be limited to…. (3) specifying guidelines for land management plans developed to achieve the goals of the Program which (B) provide for diversity of plant and animal communities based on the suitability and capability of the specific land area in order to meet overall multiple-use objectives, and within the multiple-use objectives of a land management plan adopted pursuant to this section, provide, where appropriate, to the degree practicable, for steps to be taken to preserve the diversity of tree species similar to that existing in the region controlled by the plan; (C) insure research on and (based on continuous monitoring and assessment in the field) evaluation of the effects of each management system to the end that it will not produce substantial and permanent impairment of the productivity of the land...”