Ancient Woodlands and Trees: A Guide for Landscape Planners and Forest Managers

This book comprises fifteen major contributions by leading scholars on the ecology, history, heritage, and management of ancient trees, ancient woodlands and forests. Taking trees, woods and forests as eco-cultural resources, the authors explore ecology and nature, history, tradition and heritage, and the evidence base of archaeology, literature, and archives.

Guidelines and protocols for monitoring riparian forest restoration projects

This handbook offers guidelines and protocols for monitoring riparian restoration projects. Protocols are derived from the synthesis of a broad range of existing literature on the assessment of riparian fuels, vegetation, and wildlife habitat into a methodology that is efficient, objective, and appropriate for quantitative summaries. These guidelines are also informed by the experiences of the staff of the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute and its partners and stakeholders. Additional resources are also suggested for measuring variables such as hydrology, water quality, and aquatic habitat. While recent work has focused on the development of socioeconomic indicators for restoration projects (Egan and Estrada-Bustillo 2011), the focus of this handbook is the monitoring of ecological dimensions of riparian restoration. In addition, rather than creating new monitoring protocols, this document combines existing protocols to provide guidance for monitoring riparian projects within, but not limited to, New Mexico’s Collaborative Forest Restoration Program (CFRP). Indeed, monitoring is an activity that is increasingly used to evaluate the function of riparian systems, allowing landowners and resource managers to make informed decisions. The guidance presented here is likely to evolve over time as research progresses

Ecological Restoration Implementation Plan

In March 2011 the Pacific Southwest Region of the US Forest Service released a statement of its Leadership Intent for Ecological Restoration, which laid out the Region's guiding vision and goals for its stewardship of wildland and forests for the next 15–20 years. The following draft document reflects the Regional leadership's current thinking on how the Leadership Intent will be implemented. This draft is a beginning point for discussions with employees, partners, tribes, agencies, communities of place and interest and those who care about the future of their National Forests. Like the Leadership Intent the Implementation Plan is fluid and we expect that adjustments will be made over time as the Region continues to collaborate; follow new science; and seek out and form new alliances. These ongoing processes will reveal new and smarter ways to increase the pace and scale of restoration work while balancing the ecological, social and economic benefits of our restoration actions. Regional leadership has committed to editing and improving this document following these discussions and then reviewing and updating it at least annually in the future years. Hence we invite discussion, input and insight to ensure that the Implementation Plan reflects and is responsive to new information, partnerships, and conditions.