Monitoring changes in exotic vegetation

Ecological monitoring provides critical information for management decisions by measuring changes in managed and unmanaged populations, communities and ecological systems. It integrates ecology, goal and objective setting, sampling design, sampling methods, and statistical analysis. It is a topic that I, with a team of Nature Conservancy ecologists, teach in a six day workshop as part of the USFS Continuing Education Program. It is attended by land managers from public agencies and The Nature Conservancy. Here I will provide an overview of the most important monitoring issues, modified to address the management of exotics.