An Alternative Approach to Monitoring Fish and Fish Habitat in the Inland Northwest, 1999 Annual Report.

The development of efficient and effective monitoring protocols will depend, in part, upon successfully incorporating multiple research and management goals across several disciplines. Decision analysis has these abilities and can be used to examine the potential effects of alternative management activities, identify candidate monitoring variables, and estimate the value of monitoring or conducting additional studies. The author demonstrates the utility of decision analysis for monitoring and adaptive (i.e., experimental) management with an example of a timber harvest decision. Example models were generated using previously reported relationships and Monte Carlo simulation and the value of sampling (e.g., monitoring) was estimated via Baye's Rule. He concludes that the decision analysis can be a powerful tool for developing a future effectiveness monitoring protocols and should be considered by natural resource managers prior to adopting a monitoring strategy