Deschutes & Ochoco National Forests
Crooked River National Grassland

Large Area Planning Documents

Fiscal Year 2004 Deschutes Monitoring Report

Dear Reader,

We are pleased to bring you this summary of the Deschutes National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) monitoring effort for fiscal year 2004 (Oct. 1 - Sept. 30). With this report we share our success in implementing the goals and objectives in the 1990 LRMP, which is reflected in two types of monitoring: implementation monitoring verifies consistency with direction in our Forest Plan, and effectiveness monitoring evaluates the effects of implementation activities.

The Implementation Monitoring Resource Output and Activity Summary Table includes the last ten years of reporting and a twelve-year average column so that trends of Forest activities are more apparent. These trends are useful in determining where we are headed in the context of certain uses of the Forest. Projected outputs in the Forest Plan are also displayed. New science, national and regional direction, budgets, data gathering methods, and other influences are continually evolving and adding to the Forest Plan. The effectiveness monitoring narratives include updates to ongoing monitoring activities from previous reports, as well as new and upcoming activities. The process of Forest Plan revision is expected to begin within the next couple of years and will be influenced by information we gain from studying these trends and effects.

Fiscal year 2004 also marked the tenth year of the implementation of the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP). Monitoring implementation of standards and guidelines from the Northwest Forest Plan has been ongoing and reports are available on the Regional Ecosystem web site: http://www.reo.gov/monitoring/report_show.php. Monitoring data and research reports relating the knowledge gained in the first ten years of the NWFP will be published this year, and a two-day conference will be held to discuss the findings. You can find more information at http://outreach.cof.orst.edu/nwforestplan.

I hope these reports provide you an appreciation of how your Forest is served. For additional information on this Monitoring Report, please contact Susan Skakel or Beth Peer at the address above, or by calling (541) 383-5300. You may be interested to know that monitoring reports dating back to 1998 can also be found on the Deschutes National Forest website at: http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/centraloregon/projects/planning/monitorlist.shtml.

Sincerely,

Leslie A.C. Weldon
LESLIE A. C. WELDON
Forest Supervisor

Enclosure