Monitoring of growth and yield and response to silvicultural treatments

The objectives for monitoring the growth and yield of forests can range from collecting data to validate current management on an ownership to collecting data at a regional level to develop models, measure treatment response, or observe long-term growth trends. Traditional inventory and research data each have drawbacks for observing growth and yield and treatment response. The actual design of a monitoring system should try to minimize these problems, but will depend on the specific objectives. Monitoring of operations may take an inventory-type approach, while gathering regional information to build models requires a design more like research. Each organization must be responsible for monitoring its own operations, however, cooperatives offer a viable and cost effective alternative to gathering regional growth and response data. Monitoring programs will lead to confidence and credibility in management practices and in the use of tested models.