A technical guide for monitoring wildlife habitat
Information about status and trend of wildlife habitat is important for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service to accomplish its mission and meet its legal requirements. As the steward of 193 million acres (ac) of Federal land, the Forest Service needs to evaluate the status of wildlife habitat and how it compares with desired conditions. Habitat monitoring programs provide information to meet the needs of the agency while fostering use of standardized, integrated approaches to produce robust knowledge. This technical guide provides current, scientifically credible, and practical protocols for the inventory and monitoring of terrestrial wildlife habitat. Protocols include data standards, data collection methods, and methods for detecting and monitoring changes over time (Powell 2000) To our knowledge, this document is the first comprehensive guide to monitoring wildlife habitats. It serves a unique role by providing protocols specifically tailored to habitat monitoring, which is especially pertinent for the Forest Service, given its role in managing landscapes that support a wide diversity of taxa across the major biomes of North America.