ABSTRACT
Among all ecosystems, forests are simultaneously the most globally extensive, studied, historically exploited, and the most subject to management. It follows that forest health monitoring should be the most advanced of any ecosystem health monitoring efforts. Generally speaking, that is the case. As described elsewhere in this volume (see Wilcox et al., Chapter 32) more than 150 counties are involved in initiatives to define national-level criteria and indicators for forest management, including forest health and vitality. However, as also suggested, monitoring programs actually employing these indicators generally have not yet been widely implemented. Further, as the reader will discover from the chapters in this section, forest health monitoring is a highly complex specialty requiring not only a transdisciplinary approach, but one that crosses ecological and institutional scales, ranging from the local management unit or forest patch to an entire forest biome. Of the four chapters in this section, two based on work in Australia and Switzerland provide restoration and management policy perspectives bearing on monitoring at the forest or stand level. The other two describe national forest monitoring programs at the country (Canada) and regional levels (West Coast of the U.S.). As a group, these chapters provide a wide breadth of coverage on the science and policy issues bearing on forest health monitoring.
