Problems with Monitoring in Plans

Problem:   All five Forest Management Plans have meaningless Monitoring Programs with inadequate Management Indicator Species .

MIS is one of the main tools the Forest Service uses to take the temperature of the forest’s health.   The presence or the absence of certain species should reveal the consequences of current forest management on forest health.

Solution: Tell the Forest Service to fulfill their obligations under the current laws and adopt an adequate MIS program.     The Forest Service should increase the number and quality of their Management Indicator Species.   In addition, they should include obvious communities and populations like plants, aquatic insects, fish and salamanders.

Substantiating arguments:

•  The Forest Service is ignoring current regulations .   National Forest Management Act regulations requires each forest to adopt an adequate MIS program.

•  The Forest Service relies heavily on bird species as MIS in the draft plans .   Not only are birds very mobile, but they are also not reliable or sensitive indicators of forest trends.

•  Only one salamander in one forest is a MIS.   The Southern Appalachian Region is one of the most significant biological centers of salamanders in the world.   Not only do we have a lot of salamanders, but many are very sensitive to forest health.   They would make ideal MIS, but the Forest Service hardly uses any.    

•  The Forest Service only has one aquatic MIS in one forest.  This is inadquate to monitor water quality and aquatic health.