DEFINING ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Below we outline common members of an implementation team and their responsibilities:

National AIM Lead (Headquarters)

  • Developing and maintaining up-to-date policies, objectives, priorities, and general procedures for assessment, inventory, and monitoring of natural resources at a national level. 
  • Developing agency budget guidance pertaining to assessment, inventory, and monitoring of natural resources and recommending funding allocations to state offices and centers. 
  • Monitoring AIM program implementation expenditures and performance in compliance with government accountability requirements.  
  • Coordinating with State Office Program Leads and other National Program Leads to ensure consistent implementation of AIM-related policies.  
  • Providing technical expertise and appropriate resources across the BLM to ensure proper consideration and implementation of AIM related policies. 
  • Coordinating with other Federal agencies, Tribal, and State agencies, and national and international organizations on assessment, inventory, and monitoring activities.  
  • Working with the BLM’s National Operations Center and National Training Center to develop science initiatives, tools, and training materials relevant to the AIM program and related policies.  
  • Facilitating reviews of new and proposed legislation, regulations, and policies as needed to determine how they affect the policies and objectives of BLM relevant to assessment, inventory, and monitoring.  
  • Reviewing Resource Management Plans and associated documents.  
  • Communicating with Division Chiefs about resource conditions and trends nationally to ensure they have current information. 

National Operations Center (NOC) and Partners (USDA-ARS Jornada, and the BLM/USU National Aquatic Monitoring Center)

Team of specialists including terrestrial and aquatic ecologists, data managers, statisticians, and analysts

  • Providing technical support and expertise across the BLM and to partners to ensure consistent implementation of assessment, inventory, and monitoring activities, particularly the AIM core and contingent indicators. 
  • Developing and implementing training on inventory, assessment, and monitoring methods and related activities, in cooperation with the National Training Center, to meet BLM workforce needs. 
  • Developing, managing, and maintaining internal and external systems for standardized renewable resource inventory, assessment, and monitoring data, including electronic data capture, data quality assurance and quality control, data access, and analysis and reporting. 
  • Preparing, reviewing, and evaluating BLM and other scientific technical references, user guides, technical notes, and other documents supporting the policies and objectives of BLM assessment, inventory, and monitoring activities in coordination with National Program Leads. 
  • Coordinating with Headquarters, regional, state, district, and/or field office personnel to ensure that AIM implementation is successful (e.g., answering questions regarding the AIM strategy, monitoring plans, access to resources for projects, etc.). 
  • Applying specialized statistical expertise to select state, district, and/or field office monitoring points based on their monitoring plans and analyze data for land-management decision making. 
  • Providing standard approaches to analyze and report information for land-management decision-making across BLM. 
  • Working collaboratively with partners to expand the AIM strategy across agency and state boundaries. 
  • Connecting BLM to science that supports implementation of the AIM Strategy.  
  • Coordinating with the NOC Branch of Assessment and Monitoring and other program-specific monitoring efforts as necessary.   

State Offices

State Monitoring Coordinator and/or State Lead

  • Communicating and assisting in implementing the policies, priorities, and procedures for assessment, inventory, and monitoring of renewable ecological resources within the state, working with BLM staff at the state leadership, district, and field levels. 
  • Overseeing implementation and reporting of inventory, assessment, and monitoring policies and procedures within the state, for uplands, streams and rivers, and riparian and wetland areas.  AIM implementation typically includes:   
  • Managing agreements and contracts to hire field crews for AIM monitoring data collection, and assisting with crew hiring when necessary.  
  • Coordinating methods training.  
  • Facilitating early season and end of season crew check-ins. 
  • Finalizing data QC and certifying data finalization for ingestion by the National Operations Center.    
  • Acting as a liaison to ensure communication to and from the National AIM Team and among BLM offices and BLM staff at different levels (e.g., adjacent Field Offices; Project Leads and Field Office Managers) so that the National AIM Team is receiving communication from the field and the field is receiving communication from the National AIM Team. 
  • Developing state level policies as needed to ensure inventory, assessment, and monitoring policy objectives are met, including collection of information and application of information to land management decision-making. 
  • Coordinating AIM program work plan and budgeting efforts and recommending funding allocations that will best meet monitoring needs within the state. 
  • Tracking AIM program expenditures and reporting performance and accomplishments for their state. This includes conducting periodic program reviews to assess the adequacy and effectiveness of staffing levels, budget, training, and other resources to achieve program policies and priorities. 
  • Collaborating with other State Office Program Leads involved in managing renewable resources to ensure inventory, assessment, and monitoring data collection and information application are integrated with their respective programs. Communicating standard inventory, assessment, and monitoring protocols and data management procedures through required protocol training and regular calibration to keep field and district offices current on policies and direction changes. Training should include AIM core and contingent methods and local supplemental methods as applicable.  
  • Partnering with National Operations Center and Headquarters AIM staff in execution of the AIM principles and methods. 
  • Maintaining cooperative working relationships with State and Federal agencies, universities, and local groups relative to the assessment, inventory, and monitoring of natural resources. 
  • Providing technical expertise and support to state leadership and district and field offices to ensure current information about condition and trends of renewable resources is included in land management decision-making, Land Use Plans, and public land use authorizations. 
  • Reviewing new and proposed legislation, regulations, polices, and court rulings as needed to determine how they affect the implementation of this policy in their state. 
  • Communicating with Branch Chiefs, Deputy State Directors, and State Directors about state-level resource conditions and trends to ensure they have the current information. 

District/Field Offices

Project Lead or District/Field Office Monitoring Coordinator, in conjunction with an ID team

  • Planning inventory, assessment, and monitoring activities in coordination with the IDT based on multiple renewable resource needs (e.g., Land Use Plan effectiveness, treatment effectiveness, wildlife habitat). 
  • Documenting interdisciplinary monitoring objectives, methods, and designs in a Monitoring Design Worksheet in coordination with IDTs, the State Program Lead, and the National AIM Team (when designs will be provided by the National AIM Team). 
  • Implementing inventory, assessment, and monitoring activities of renewable resources within areas under their authority. AIM implementation tasks vary with the crew hiring mechanism, but may include: assembling field equipment; contributing to AIM core indicator and supplemental methods training and support in coordination with State Office; providing a local orientation; conducting field visits and calibration; providing local supervision or contact throughout the field season; overseeing field crew QA and QC of data; reviewing preliminary indicator data; and resolving errors in data in coordination with the State Office and National AIM Team.  
  • Analyzing and interpret data using an interdisciplinary approach to ensure that resource interrelationships are considered.  
  • Ensuring that land management decisions, Land Use Plans and public land use authorizations fully incorporate available AIM information about the conditions and trends of renewable resources. When local data analysis capacity is not available, this may involve requests for state or National AIM Team assistance.   
  • Coordinating, as appropriate, with Federal, Tribal, and State agencies, adjoining BLM district and field offices, and BLM stakeholders relative to inventory, assessment, and monitoring of renewable resources. 
  • Communicating with line officers about resource conditions and trends to ensure they have the current information within their district or field office.   

Field crew

Typically field crews are only hired for the duration of the field season, plus a few weeks for pre-season prep and post-season clean-up and the bullets below reflect this model. Occasionally, crew leads are asked to stay on for a longer duration and in that case, the list below should be amended to reflect the additional roles and responsibilities assumed by the crew lead.

  • Crew lead potential responsibilities:
    • Office evaluating points   
    • Organizing field trips / hitch plans  
    • Coordinating with field office staff  
    • Performing data quality control checks throughout the field season 
    • Participating in AIM core methods training  
    • Calibrating on data collection methods  
    • Collecting field data following standardized methods and following quality assurance procedures  
    • Communicating with supervisory staff regularly to facilitate safety oversight  
    • Communicating with Project Lead regarding data collection and data submission processes  
    • Properly processing, storing, and documenting samples collected in the field  
    • Maintaining field equipment and vehicle  
  • Participating in AIM core methods training  
  • Calibrating on data collection methods  
  • Collecting field data following standardized methods and following quality assurance procedures  
  • Communicating with Project Lead regarding data collection and data submission processes  
  • Properly processing, storing, and documenting samples collected in the field  
  • Performing data quality control checks throughout the field season 
  • Maintaining field equipment and vehicle  
  • Performing pre-season prep as needed  
  • Submitting data submission and ensuring QC checks are completed 
  • Finalizing data

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