Multiple Species Inventory and
Monitoring Protocol:
A Technical Guide for Monitoring Plants and Animals On National
Forest System Lands
Need for Monitoring Guidance
 Monitoring
is required of land management to assess the success of management
activities in meeting legal, regulatory, and policy objectives,
including sustaining species and ecosystem diversity by sustaining
populations of native species and associated habitats. Information
on the condition of populations and habitats of plants and animals
is a primary tool for determining the status of progress toward
maintaining or achieving desired conditions.
The development and implementation of Forest-scale monitoring as
part of Land and Resource Management Plans has been challenging
and progress has been slow. Two barriers appear consistent: 1) lack
of clear monitoring objectives in terms that can be readily translated
into sampling design specifications; and 2) lack of capacity or
commitment to fund data collection, management. A consistent, nationally
standardized monitoring program to obtain status and change data
on species of concern and interest or biological diversity on National
Forest System (NFS) lands would greatly assist Regions and Forests
in achieving monitoring objectives.
Development of MSIM
 Over
the past five years, Forest Service research and management have
collaborated to develop a nationally standardized protocol, the
Multiple Species Inventory and Monitoring (MSIM) protocol (see The
Multiple Species Inventory and Monitoring Protocol - Manley and Van Horne 2005). Early development and testing occurred
primarily in the Sierra Nevada in collaboration with the Lake Tahoe
Basin Management Unit (see MSIM
Evaluation- Manley et al 2004 ; Pilot
Field Test - Manley et al. 2002, and Year
1 Implementation - Roth et al. 2004), and investigations into
the application of portions of the protocol were conducted for Arizona
and New Mexico (see Region
3 Plan - Manley and McIntyre 2004). The MSIM Design Team, consisting
of USFS wildlife research scientists from around the country, provided
guidance on the national protocol based on regional trials (see
Design Team). The MSIM
protocol is intended to provide a consistent and efficient method
for obtaining basic presence/absence population data and associated
habitat condition data for a broad suite of vertebrate and plant
species, including species of concern and special interest. Species
of concern and interest commonly include Management Indicator Species,
Forest Service Sensitive species, and state and federally listed
species, as well as overall biological diversity.
Objective of MSIM
 The
MSIM protocol targets the most basic of questions regarding change
in populations and habitat conditions, and is based on a sampling
design that can be used to assess change at a range of scales, which
is the most cost effective approach to generate reliable change
data that is useful at the Forest scale (see MSIM
Overview Presentation - Manley and Van Horne 2004). In the MSIM
protocol, a simple sampling design is clearly specified and primary
survey methods are identified for each of several taxonomic groups,
including terrestrial and aquatic birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles,
and plants. The protocol uses the Forest Inventory and Analysis
systematic grid as its sampling frame, thus enabling a variety of
data sharing options between FIA and MSIM that enhance the objectives
of these monitoring programs.
Status of MSIM
The MSIM protocol is published as a Washington Office General Technical Report - WO-GTR-73 (MSIM_gtr). Paper copies of the publication are available by contacting rschneider@fs.fed.us. Data forms for the core survey methods are provided here (MSIM_forms) to facilitate implementation. Many thanks and much appreciation to the many individuals who took the time to provide comments and improve the final technical guide. Responses to each comment are documented in MSIM_comments. For additional information, please contact Pat Manley (pmanley@fs.fed.us) or Bea Van Horne (bvanhorne@fs.fed.us).
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