Multiparty Monitoring

Learning Topic

Multiparty monitoring requires people with varied backgrounds and interests to work together to better understand and measure project efforts and impacts. A multiparty effort can:

• Develop an agreed-upon, comprehensive list of issues to be monitored and identify good questions to ask;
• Assess how well a project is meeting desired outcomes and respond to diverse concerns;
• Identify how management can be adapted to improve results; and
• Increase understanding among diverse interests.

With support from the Forest Service Collaborative Forest Restoration Program and the Ford Foundation, the National Forest Foundation (NFF) facilitated a diverse effort to develop a series of handbooks on multiparty monitoring, written by the Northern Arizona University Ecological Restoration Institute.  These handbooks provide guidance in getting started, bringing stakeholders to the table, putting together the monitoring plan, and identifying ecological, social, and economic indicators.

Multiparty Monitoring Plans

In order to be successful, multiparty monitoring groups must identify and agree upon what they will monitor, how data will be collected, and then analyze it together. Often groups jointly create monitoring protocols, though sometimes one or more trusted scientists are called in to create the plan for data collection. While some groups collect their data by sending out teams with balanced representation from the diverse interests involved, others develop objective and repeatable protocols for data collection that are easily collected by anyone in an unbiased manner. Once the protocols are agreed upon, data can be gathered by a subset of the multiparty monitoring group, volunteers or students. Often groups use photo points to show change over time. The point is that the diverse interests involved in the multiparty monitoring effort agree on the plan, data collection protocols, analysis, and follow-up actions to what has been learned.

• Northwest Connections, an NFF partner that works on the Flathead National Forest, began coordinating a multiparty monitoring effort on the Holland-Pierce Stewardship Project in 2006. Check out their  multiparty monitoring plan, which does a good job of addressing the important questions of who, what, when, where, why, and anticipated costs. 
• The Lemhi County Forest Restoration Group, coordinated by Salmon Valley Stewardship,  developed this multiparty monitoring plan for the Hughes Creek Hazardous Fuels Reduction Project.
• The Pinchot Partners developed a comprehensive multiparty monitoring protocol for the Cat Creek Stewardship Project that includes a clear description of objectives, indicators, and rationale for the monitoring.
• The Bankhead Liaison Panel, a multiparty monitoring and stewardship group associated with the Bankhead National Forest, offers a data collection checklist for use in quarterly monitoring assessments. The check list includes a variety of indicators and photo point comparisons. Once the data is collected, the Panel discusses any issues observed by the monitoring team.

Posting Monitoring Data on the Web

Many partners of the National Forest Foundation are engaged in multiparty monitoring of projects on their local National Forests and have developed Web sites and protocols that may be helpful to others.

• The Clackamas Stewardship Partners are working on a variety of stewardship monitoring projects on the Mt. Hood National Forest in Washington.
• The Tushar Allotments Collaborative is a two-year effort, started in 2007, to collaboratively resolve resource management disputes on two grazing allotments in the Tushar Range of the Fishlake National Forest in Utah. Their website includes multiple descriptions of monitoring protocols and data collection sheets.
• In 2003, Lake County Resources Initiative established monitoring protocols for restoration activities occurring on the Upper Chewaucan Watershed, which includes both private lands and the Fremont-Winema National Forests.
• The Diablo Trust has developed a centralized monitoring database based on the Holistic Ecosystem Health Indicator, a collaboratively-developed, integrated monitoring framework.

Peer Learning Sessions on Multiparty Monitoring

The New Multiparty Monitoring and Stewardship Contracting Tool for Adaptive Management, held September 8, 2011

Join us for a presentation about the recently released Multiparty Monitoring and Stewardship Contracting Tool for Adaptive Management. This informative guide is a step by step ‘how to’ filled with examples and answers to many questions and pitfalls commonly experienced by collaborative groups seeking to develop a multiparty monitoring program. Ann Moote, author of the Guidebook, shares information about the best approaches for using the book as a resource to your multiparty monitoring effort. The Northeastern Washington Forestry Coalition also presents about their monitoring approach, which is highlighted in the Guidebook. The Regional Office of the Forest Service contracted with Sustainable Northwest to develop the Guidebook in response to requests from collaborative stewardship groups for specific information about multiparty monitoring approaches in the Pacific Northwest. Collaborative support and assistance for the Guidebook was provided by Oregon Solutions and the National Forest Foundation.

• The Guidebook is available to view or download.
• To view the session, CLICK HERE.

Lessons Learned from Five Years of Monitoring on the White Mountain Stewardship Project, held May 23, 2011

Sue Sitko of The Nature Conservancy presented the many lessons learned after five years of multiparty monitoring on the White Mountain Stewardship Project (Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest). The White Mountain Stewardship Project was the country’s first ten-year stewardship contract. The Project’s goals were to reduce the impact of wildfires to communities at risk, to improve wildlife habitat, and to restore forest health, while helping rural communities stimulate employment in the wood products industry. Sue Sitko discussed how the collaborative group involved in the Project set out to measure progress toward achieving these goals during the first five years of the Project, and how they are approaching monitoring in the next five years.

• To view the session, CLICK HERE.
• For a summary of the monitoring effort, click HERE.

Measuring Socioeconomic Benefit and Job Creation Results, held September 22, 2011

Measuring the social and economic impacts of collaborative stewardship work is extremely important to community-based groups and their constituents. In this session, the Ecosystem Workforce Program and the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute present reports and tools they each recently released to assist community groups identify and measure socioeconomic indicators. In addition, Salmon Valley Stewardship describes their efforts to monitor the economic impact of their work, and the exciting results they can now report.

• To view the session, CLICK HERE.

Monitoring Socioeconomic and Ecological Project Impacts (recast), held December 1, 2009

Do you want to have a "live" discussion of these or other issues? Email Karen DiBari or call (406) 830-3352, for information and referral.