The Office of Federal Register Electronic Public Inspection Desk Version 02/11/2011
In addition, population trends for most species are extremely difficult to determine within the 15year life of a plan, as it may take decades to establish accurate trend data, and data may be needed for a broader area than an individual national forest or grassland. Instead, the Agency expects to take advantage of recent technological advancements in monitoring the status of focal species, such as genetic sampling to estimate area occupied by species. Broader-scale monitoring strategies. The proposed rule would require the regional forester to develop a broader-scale monitoring strategy for those monitoring questions that could best be answered at a scale broader than one unit; for example, detecting changes in conditions related to wide-ranging or migratory species or measuring stressors such as climate change. The proposed broader-scale monitoring strategy would be a new requirement for the Agency. Other options were considered, such as requiring only a unit-level monitoring program without any specific monitoring requirements. However, the Agency believes that having broader-scale monitoring strategies provides a way to distribute the monitoring workload most efficiently. Unit-level monitoring would be focused on answering questions directly related to the management of an individual plan area, and that are within the capability of the unit to measure. Broader-scale monitoring would look at how plans fit within the larger landscape, taking into account drivers and stressors affecting large ecosystems, multiple land ownerships, and information available from other branches of the Agency as well as other governmental and nongovernmental partners. Coordinating unit-level and broad-scale approaches. The Agency recognizes that the timing of plan revisions and the development of broaderscale strategies needs to be coordinated. In some cases, a plan revision for a unit may not be
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