Administrative Rules of Montana
Department 36 - NATURAL RESOURCES AND CONSERVATION
Chapter 36.11 - FOREST MANAGEMENT
Subchapter 36.11.4 - State Forest Land Management
Rule 36.11.419 - BIODIVERSITY - FIELD REVIEWS

(1) The department shall field review a subset of forest management activities after project completion, or every five years for ongoing projects, to evaluate the application of biological diversity measures at a stand and landscape level.

(2) The department shall check landscape evaluations to compare actual effects of management activities and natural processes against desired or predicted effects to the extent practicable.

(3) The department shall evaluate trends in:

(4) The department shall complete biodiversity field reviews. The reviews shall focus on:

(5) The department shall summarize biodiversity field reviews in a monitoring report to the state board of land commissioners every five years.

(6) The department shall quantify forest cover conditions, including cover types and age class distributions, annually at the unit level using data from the department's forest management bureau's stand level inventory system. Every five years the reports shall be submitted as part of the monitoring report to the state board of land commissioners.

(7) Results of monitoring shall be used to help plan follow-up and future activities in the evaluation area, and to improve the department's ability to predict the effects of activities in similar situations elsewhere. Monitoring shall be frequent enough to accomplish these purposes effectively.