Provides information on three sampling methods used to inventory and monitor the vegetation resources in riparian areas. The vegetation cross-section method evaluates the health of vegetation across the valley floor. The greenline method provides a measurement of the streamside vegetation. The woody species regeneration method measures the density and age class structure of any shrub or tree species that may be present in the sampling area. Together these three sampling procedures can provide an evaluation of the health of all the vegetation in a given riparian area.

Until the mid 1970's only minimal effort has been directed at monitoring the vegetation resources in riparian areas. Since that time considerable attention and research have been directed toward gaining a better understanding of the vegetation on these areas. This increased attention has been due mainly to recognition of the important sociological and economic values these areas provide to society in general.

The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires that wetlands be protected from degradation because of their important ecological functions including maintenance of high water quality and provision of fish and wildlife habitat. However, this protection generally does not encompass riparian areasâ€"the lands bordering rivers and lakesâ€"even though they often provide the same functions as wetlands. Growing recognition of the similarities in wetland and riparian area functioning and the differences in their legal protection led the NRC in 1999 to undertake a study of riparian areas, which has culminated in Riparian Areas: Functioning and Strategies for Management. The report is intended to heighten awareness of riparian areas commensurate with their ecological and societal values. The primary conclusion is that, because riparian areas perform a disproportionate number of biological and physical functions on a unit area basis, restoration of riparian functions along America's waterbodies should be a national goal.

This annotated bibliography documents literature addressing the design and implementation of vegetation monitoring. It provides resources managers, ecologists, and scientists access to the great volume of literature addressing many aspects of vegetation monitoring: planning and objective setting, choosing vegetation attributes to measure, sampling design, sampling methods, statistical and graphical analysis, and communication of results. Over half of the 1400 references have been annotated. Keywords pertaining to the type of monitoring or method are included with each bibliographic entry. Keyword index.