State approaches for monitoring the application of best management practices and forest management guidelines : a regional summary.

Abstract

Forestry has developed and published best management practices (BMPs) and forest management guidelines in 49 states. Although the major focus continues to be water quality protection, guidelines related to protecting wildlife habitat, visual quality, and cultural resources are becoming more common. These guidelines are applied across a wide range of forest landowner categories and forest management activities. A survey of state forestry agencies found that compliance monitoring for guideline application is conducted in 38 states. All southern states have monitoring programs. States tend to monitor all public and private forest landowner categories in their states. Monitoring sites are most frequently selected from a subsample of sites from all landowner categories. In many states, all sites have an equal probability of being selected for monitoring. In other states, a variety of criteria are used to identify potential candidate monitoring sites. Southern states concentrate on monitoring the application of water quality BMPs while northern and western states evaluate sites against a broader array of guidelines (e.g., cultural resources, visual quality, wildlife habitat) in addition to the water quality BMPs. Southern states monitor a wide range of forest management activities while northern and western states focus on monitoring timber harvesting and associated road construction and maintenance.