Monitoring reports

Master plans set goals and objectives describing desired future conditions for each property. An ongoing monitoring program is essential if managers are to know whether the plan is achieving the desired results. A monitoring program provides essential data for adaptive management — that is, checking results and making management corrections when needed so as to stay on the best path to achieve the desired result and minimize adverse or undesirable impacts. On a broader scale, some master plan related monitoring data will also contribute to the department's statewide and regional ecosystem and environmental monitoring programs.

Monitoring can be used to improve management results or efficiency, build and maintain credibility with the public, validate past decisions and build better decisions in the future, and build certainty where uncertainty exists regarding the impact of management actions or uses. A monitoring program will allow the plan to be kept up to date through adaptive management and substantially reduce the need for a major plan revision process every 15 years.

The DNR is in the process of changing the way we monitor the implementation of master plans. Properties that are required to publish Expanded Annual Property Implementation Plans (APIP) will also provide accomplishment reporting for the previous year starting in FY21. Visit the APIP website for a list of properties and reports.