Ecosystem Assessment

How do we evaluate whether National Forest System management efforts are going well as part of larger social, economic, and ecological systems? How do we evaluate whether changing conditions are moving in a desired direction? How do we evaluate cumulative effects of a proposed management action? Ecosystem Assessments address these and similar questions.

The Resource Information Group (RIG) is responsible for policy, direction, and guidance regarding assessments done to support land management on national forests and grasslands. Specific RIG responsibilities include guidance regarding program management, planning, standardization, corporate information management, accomplishment reporting, and quality assurance and control. These responsibilities apply to social, economic, and ecological resource assessment activities. We coordinate our work with other staff units throughout the Forest Service, with other agencies, and with many partners outside the agency.

An Ecosystem Assessment consists of least three activities:

1. Gathering information: Accumulating relevant data, often from existing inventories or monitoring results, regarding social, economic, or ecological conditions or trends. Relevant data address key questions identified by agency officials, often based on work with agency partners or the public
2. Integrating Information: An evaluative synthesis of information that responds to the questions of interest about conditions and trends.
3. Presenting Information: Understandable presentations of evaluative results to address the key questions and share the integrated findings.

Ecosystem Assessments can occur at tactical, project scales or at strategic, regional or sub-regional scales. Assessments may occur for many purposes, including evaluation of ecological risk, conservation assessments, and cumulative effect analyses required as part of Environmental Impact Analysis.

Monitoring and Evaluation Reports (Selected Examples)

The following are examples from around the nation showing different types and scales of Assessments.

• Assessment of grassland ecosystem conditions in the Southwestern United States. Volume 1 - USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. RMRS-GTR-135-vol. 1. 2004.
• An Assessment of Forest Ecosystem Health in the Southwest - USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Southwestern Region, General Technical Report RM-GTR-295. 1997.
• Southern Forest Resource Assessment Project - USDA Forest Service Southern Research Station and Southern Region.
  • Southern Forest Resource Assessment: Table of Contents - 2007.
• Great Lakes Ecological Assessment - USDA Forest Service, North Central Research Station.
• Hoosier-Shawnee Ecological Assessment - USDA Forest Service, North Central Research Station. Gen. Tech. Rep. NC-244. 2004.
• Landscape Analysis: Integrated Resource Assessment - USDA Forest Service, Daniel Boone National Forest. 2007.
• Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests Resource Management and Forest Planning - includes Watershed Assessments for 2005.
  • Oconee Ranger District: Watershed Analysis and Opportunity Assessment (PDF, 3.6 MB) - USDA Forest Service, Chattahoochee-Oconoee National Forest. 2005.
• Northwest Forest Plan - Interagency Regional Ecosystem Office.
• Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project
• Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project - an archive maintained by the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Station.

Analysis Guides and References

• Ecosystem Analysis at the Watershed Scale: Federal Guide for Watershed Analysis (PDF, 0.9 MB)
• Roads Analysis: Informing Decisions About Managing the National Forest Transportation System - USDA Forest Service Road Management Website.
• A Framework for Analyzing the Hydrologic Conditions of Watersheds (PDF, 0.4 MB) - Interagency product. June 1998.
• A Human Dimensions Framework: Guidelines for Conducting Social Assessments (PDF, 1.5 MB) - USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station. GTR-SRS-65. June 2003.
• U.S Environmental Protection Agency: National Center for Environmental Assessment
  • Guidelines for Ecological Risk Assessment
  • Watersheds and Other Place-Based Risk Assessments
• Seeing the Forest And the Trees: Ecological Classification for the Conservation (PDF, 2.6 MB) - The Nature Conservancy.

Staff Contact

Jim Keys
Integrated Resource Inventories
U.S. Forest Service Resource Information Group (RIG)
202-205-1580 or

Partners

USDA Forest Service

• Northern Research Station: Sustaining Forests: Forest Resource Monitoring and Assessment
• Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team
• Forest Management
• Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) National Program
• Eastern Forest Threat Center
• Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center

Interagency

• Southern Appalachian Man and Biosphere Program - federal, state, and ad hoc members.

Non-Governmental Organizations

• NatureServe - an organization in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, various government, private sector, and international agencies.