You are here?--->Are you getting what you want?
Are you getting what you want?
Monitor, evaluate and revise as needed
When you start to implement the management plan, you should also start to monitor outcomes. The monitoring plan you developed should indicate:
- what data you will be collecting,
- when to collect and analyze the data;
- who is responsible for data collection, analysis, and reporting.
The monitoring step is the last step of the adaptive management process. Your completed plan provides a defined structure for monitoring. New programs started through the plan may require different assessment methods than those you used for developing the management plan.
Monitoring is designed to measure progress towards the management plan’s goals. As you implement planned actions and assess results, you will be able to see if progress is being made. You will assess if standards are being met. This feedback tells you how well the various parts of the management plan are working.
The point of monitoring is to provide the information you need to adjust your management methods and tactics in real time. This allows you to stay on track toward achieving your plan's objectives. For example, a city may establish a program to use citizen volunteers to train newly planted street trees. Close monitoring of the program will be needed to see that pruning standards are being followed and that enough volunteers are available to do the necessary pruning. It may be necessary to revise training methods for volunteers, change volunteer recruitment tactics, or alter other parts of the program to make sure it stays on track.
In some cases, monitoring may show that after trying a range of tactics, some objectives are simply unattainable. Continuing the example above, suppose the plan's goal was for citizen volunteers to conduct 90% of all young street tree pruning. However, after trying multiple approaches, the city can only recruit enough reliable volunteers to prune 50% of the young street trees. At that point, it may make sense to adjust the plans goals to reflect what is possible. In addition, the plan will have to be adjusted to account for the additional pruning that will need to be done by staff or contractors.
Regular monitoring and reporting can also reveal new issues that were not addressed in the plan. For example, the introduction of a new pest or disease could require changes to the plan. New management goals or objectives may need to be added, with corresponding actions and monitoring. By providing for regular evaluation and revision of the plan as part of the management process, the need for change can be identified before a crisis develops.
Evaluation, reporting, and revision of the plan on a regular basis can also help keep stakeholders aware of the urban forest program. To help build and maintain support for the urban forest program, stakeholders and decision makers need to be kept aware of the program's successes and challenges. Your clients (management, the public, other stakeholders) need to realize that urban forest management is an ongoing process. Conditions can change. Developing your urban forest management plan is the first step towards meeting your goals and attaining your vision for the urban forest. However, it is only the first step of a process that needs to respond and adapt to changes as they develop over time.
