The materials developed from this project are intended to advance participatory biological monitoring in forest management.  From the 100+ year-old Audubon Christmas bird count to the EPA's volunteer water quality monitoring to the growing multiparty monitoring movement by community-based forestry organizations, participatory monitoring has proven to be an effective way to improve science and understand environmental change.  A goal of this project has been to synthesize the literature and stakeholder knowledge on participatory monitoring and provide a tool (guidelines) that will help forest managers and scientists: 1) broaden participation to meet biological monitoring needs while maintaining scientific standards, and 2) build positive long-term relationships with participants and their local communities.  The guidelines are designed as a reference tool to work with any type of project whether bottom-up or top-down, large or small, volunteer or small contractor.  While oriented toward natural resource managers and scientists in the U.S., the guidelines are likely useful to anyone interested in participatory processes and biological monitoring.  In creating the materials the interdisciplinary team drew from their professional experiences in participatory research, as well as the invaluable insight of many advisors and reviewers from the University of California Berkeley Cooperative Extension, Rural Action, the National Network of Forest Practitioners, the Inventory and Monitoring Institute, and others (listed in report below). Much guidance was also gained from stakeholder workshops held by the Institute for Culture and Ecology throughout the United States over the last several years.
 

   Link to Introductory PowerPoint show:  Offline Version (Right click link, save, open - 1mb)  |  Online Version (requires IE)

   Link to online version of the GUIDELINES
 

  David Pilz, Eric T. Jones, Heidi L. Ballard. 2005. Final Report to the National Commission Science for
     Sustainable Forestry: Guidelines for Participatory Biodiversity Inventory and Monitoring of Sustainable
     Forest Management. Download .pdf.

 David Pilz, Heidi L. Ballard, Eric T. Jones.  2005. Broadening Participation in Biological Monitoring:
     Guidelines for Scientists and Managers.  Download .pdf (1 mb)

 Heidi L. Ballard, David Pilz, Eric T. Jones, Christy Getz. 2005. Training Curriculum for Scientists and
     Managers: Broadening Participation in Biological Monitoring.  Download .pdf (750 kb)