198 



certainty. For this reason, we apply practices which we believe 

 will meet our objectives, and then monitor them to determine 

 their effectiveness. 



The Northwest Forest Plan has included management areas that 

 build on our monitoring efforts but goes one step further in 

 creating areas for developing and testing new ideas. This is 

 accomplished through partnerships between the public, scientists 

 and land managers. The plan establishes 10 Adaptive Management 

 Areas which operate on the principle of adaptive management. 

 Adaptive management means we learn from our actions and change 

 our management when necessary. This rec[uires careful monitoring 

 of the condition and processes of ecosystems as we manage 

 National Forest System lamds. 



Monitoring is em essential con^onent of natural resource 

 mamagement because it provides information on the relative 

 success of meuiagement strategies including land allocations, such 

 as adaptive management areas or late-successional reserves, as 

 well as operating stsmdards and guidelines. 



The Northwest Forest Plan covers more than 24 million acres of 

 federal lauid (including National Parks, National Forests, 

 Wildlife Refuges, emd BLM lands) in the range of the northern 

 spotted owl. ^^proximately 30% of these acres has been set aside 

 for special protection by Act of Congress. The remaining 70% is 

 allocated by the following mcuiagement direction: 



10 



