Aquatic and Riparian Effectiveness Monitoring Plan for the Northwest Forest Plan

The Aquatic and Riparian Effectiveness Monitoring Plan (AREMP) is intended to characterize the ecological condition of watersheds and aquatic ecosystems. It will determine present watershed condition, track trends in watershed condition over time, and report on the Northwest Forest Plan's effectiveness across the region. This Northwest Forest Plan presents options and guidelines for use in pilot testing and implementing an effectiveness monitoring program for aquatic and riparian systems. The base program is designed to evaluate status and trends of watershed, stream, and riparian conditions by using decision-support models. Although the focus of AREMP is on characterizing ecosystem status and trend, implementing the Northwest Forest Plan also will supply information that will be useful in determining causal relations to help explain those trends. Abstract Under the direction of the Regional Interagency Executive Committee, which oversees the implementation and management of the Northwest Forest Plan (Forest Plan), multi-agency federal teams have been developing monitoring programs to evaluate the effectiveness of the Forest Plan. Initial priorities assigned by the federal agencies for monitoring include the northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina), marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus), late-successional and old-growth forests, and aquatic and riparian ecosystems (Mulder et al. 1999). The Aquatic and Riparian Effectiveness Monitoring Plan (AREMP) is intended to characterize the ecological condition of watersheds and aquatic ecosystems. It will determine present watershed condition, track trends in watershed condition over time, and report on the Forest Plan's effectiveness across the region. This Forest Plan presents options and guidelines for use in pilot testing and implementing an effectiveness monitoring program for aquatic and riparian systems. The base program is designed to evaluate status and trends of watershed, stream, and riparian conditions by using decision-support models (DSMs). Although the focus of AREMP is on characterizing ecosystem status and trend, implementing the Forest Plan also will supply information that will be useful in determining causal relations to help explain those trends. The effectiveness of the Forest Plan could be examined at smaller spatial scales; however , the direction for this effort is to describe status and trend of the condition of watersheds at the regional scale. Because the Forest Plan's Aquatic Conservation Strategy (ACS) provides a framework for managing aquatic ecosystems primarily at watershed and landscape (i.e., multiple watersheds) scales, the subwatershed (6 th-field hydrological unit) forms the basic geographic unit for monitoring. Sampling a minimum of 50 sub-watersheds annually in the Forest Plan area will …