Monitoring trees is a critical step in tracking carbon sequestration and ensuring the health and growth of planted or naturally regenerating trees. This lesson will guide you through the key considerations for selecting trees to monitor, determining sample sizes based on population, and applying scientifically accepted sampling standards. Whether you’re working with a few hundred or several thousand trees, this process ensures the data you collect is representative, reliable, and useful for tracking both ecological and carbon outcomes.

Through this lesson, you will explore how to determine which trees should be monitored and how many are needed to meet confidence levels that satisfy reporting requirements. You’ll also engage with sample size charts and learn how to apply them across diverse reforestation contexts.

Learning Goals:

By the end of this lesson, participants will be able to:

1. Understand the importance of tree monitoring in the carbon tracking process.
2. Determine appropriate sampling sizes using confidence level and margin of error guidelines.
3. Apply sampling techniques to projects with different tree population sizes.
4. Identify a minimum threshold for effective sampling per species.
5. Prepare to collect monitoring data that reflects ecosystem health and supports participatory impact tracking.