The Redwood Forest Stewardship Monitoring Collaborative (RFSMC) is a partnership of managers, researchers, and landowners focused on standardized, long-term monitoring of forest stewardship activities in the coast redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains. By consistently monitoring a wide range of forest stewardship projects and methods over time, we will provide science-guided information to inform future management decisions and improve our understanding of those methods that most effectively build forest resilience, protect and enhance biodiversity, and reduce wildfire risk and effects in coast redwood and associated forest systems.

Funded as a CalFire Forest Health Research Grant in 2024 to the San Mateo Resource Conservation District and University of California, Cooperative Extension, the collaborative will:

• establish a standardized forest stewardship monitoring protocol for the coast redwood region, in collaboration with grant partners and ongoing monitoring efforts of managers and researchers working throughout the region;
• create the Santa Cruz Mountains Long-Term Forest Monitoring Plot Network, a network of forest inventory plots spread strategically across Santa Cruz Mountains forest stewardship projects, disturbances, and undisturbed forests.
• disseminate these resources to increase the pace and scale of forest stewardship monitoring throughout the coast redwood region.

Plot network data will be made available on request to land managers, researchers, and students for future research applications that seek to understand the long-term influence of forest stewardship activities on biodiversity, forest health and growth, wildfire risk reduction, and more.