Monitoring of certain resources is required by law, regulation, or directive (see box below for the required nine monitoring topics). Other monitoring occurs depending on specific needs of the national forest or grassland. Every 2 years, each forest or grassland compiles and evaluates the monitoring results and drafts a report like this one. Decision makers, such as forest and grassland supervisors, use these biennial monitoring evaluation reports (BMERs) to update their knowledge and assess progress toward the desired conditions in the forest or grassland plan. The public use these BMERs to understand what’s happening on the land that they depend upon and enjoy.