Project: 2003-01. Report - Forest Condition Monitoring Strategy (2003–01)

Date: 2003 Author: CHH Publication: Report Project reference: 2003-01 Report is available online Download report

Executive summary:

The development of the Viewpoint method for monitoring forest health was an initiative of CHH Forests. A paper describing the method in more detail and its relationship to the PSP method is included at the end of this report. The Viewpoint method was designed to address the need for:

• providing staff with meaningful information in summary form that identifies issues and impacts requiring their attention.

• benchmarking of forest health condition and determining its change over time.

• prioritisation of forest protection through a better knowledge of the extent and impact of forest health problems.

The Viewpoint strategy forms the cornerstone of the CHH forest health initiative and its implementation required the development of a detailed field manual to guide those
undertaking assessments. In developing the field manual a preliminary trial was undertaken to compare the performance of two independent assessors at five sites with that of the project manager and identify specific issues to be addressed in the manual and future training.

The trial was not considered definitive in determining variability between assessors but was important in identifying differences related to how they undertook the assessment and their understanding of the level of detail required.

In addition to assessor comparison the opportunity was taken to select sites which had been previously assessed using the PSP method. This more intensive plot based assessment is seen as complementary to the Viewpoint method, and it is hoped further work on the relationship between the two methods will be undertaken leading to an integrated forest health assessment package.

Report is available online