The field guide

What to go look for, and how to record it so it counts.

Each of these is a way of checking one kind of sentence an agency writes about the ground. Follow the steps with a phone. Keep the originals, unedited. Write what you saw in your own words. The short list under each one is the difference between evidence and a nice photo.

Before anything else: the field rules

Public land only. Plenty of land inside a national forest or park boundary is privately owned, and that is not yours to walk on. A gate or a closure sign means stop. Check the rules for the specific place you are going, because they differ.
Don’t touch survey stakes, flagging, equipment or anything a crew left. Photograph it; leave it.
Don’t approach crews, contractors or agency staff about the project. Don’t interfere with any operation.
Wildlife at a distance. No drones in wilderness or anywhere they’re prohibited. Stay off closed roads and trails.
If you’re not sure, don’t. Weather, terrain, water, fire and people are your call, and yours alone.

Your phone, set up once

Turn on location for the Camera app. On an iPhone: Settings, Privacy and Security, Location Services, Camera, set to While Using, and turn Precise Location on. In Camera settings, Formats, choose Most Compatible so photos save as JPEG; it keeps the location and the time in the file.

Do not edit, crop or filter a photo you plan to submit. Editing can strip the data that makes it evidence. Shoot extra frames instead.

If you share a photo from the Photos app, tap Options at the top of the share sheet and make sure Location is on. Some versions strip it by default.

Old growth

Use this when: The document says "no old growth," "young stand," "plantation," or "second growth."

01Stand in the patch of forest the document names. Agencies mark these with a numbered tag, a sign or colored flagging tied to a tree; photograph it if you find one, and don’t touch it.
02Pick the five largest trees within about 20 meters of where you stand. Photograph each with a person, a trekking pole or a tape in the frame for scale.
03If you have a tape, measure each trunk around at chest height and write the number down. Circumference in inches is fine; we convert.
04Photograph the canopy straight up, and any standing dead trees (snags) and big downed logs.
05Turn slowly and take a photo every quarter turn: four photos, one 360.
06Write one paragraph: what the stand looks like to you, in your own words.

What would count

A scale reference in the frame. A wide shot of big trees proves little; a tape does.
The measurement, written down, beside the photo it belongs to.
That marker somewhere in your set of photos, so nobody can argue you were in the wrong patch of woods.

Where it ends up: in your own comment to the agency, under your name; with the lawyers on the fight if you say so; and in a sworn statement only if one of them asks you and you agree. The field rules apply. If you’re not sure, don’t.

Roads

Use this when: The document calls a road "existing," a project "reconstruction," or says "no new road."

01Find where the road is supposed to start. Photograph it from the junction, with anything that identifies the spot (a sign, a gate, a milepost).
02Walk it. Photograph the surface every few hundred meters and at anything that would stop a vehicle: a washout, a slide, a fallen tree, a stream with no crossing, trees growing in the road.
03Photograph the far end the same way.
04Let your phone record a GPS track if it can (any tracking app). A screenshot of the track is fine.
05Write down whether a pickup could drive it today, and why or why not.

What would count

Start, middle and end, with the track. A single photo of brush isn’t a road that doesn’t exist.
The reason a vehicle could not pass, in a photo.
The date. Roads change with a season.

Route use

Use this when: The document says a route is "established," in "current use," "user-created," or "closed."

01Photograph the route where it leaves a road or trailhead, including any sign or the lack of one.
02Photograph the worn path itself with your boot or a pole laid across it, so the width shows.
03Photograph any evidence of use or non-use: tracks, tire marks, litter, cut logs, or brush and fallen trees across it.
04Sit at the junction for a fixed time you choose (thirty minutes is enough) and count who passes and how: hikers, horses, bikes, motorcycles, ATVs, trucks. Write the count and the times down.
05Write one paragraph on how you know this route, if you do.

What would count

A timed count with the time written down. "Nobody uses it" is an opinion; "zero in thirty minutes on a Saturday at ten" is data.
The width of the worn path, with something in the frame to measure it against.

Stream crossings

Use this when: The document says a crossing is "stable," a culvert is "functioning," or a stream has "no fish."

01Photograph the crossing from the road, then from upstream and from downstream.
02At a culvert, photograph the outlet from downstream so the drop from the pipe to the water shows. Put a pole or a person beside it for scale.
03Photograph the water: is it flowing, standing, or dry. Note the time.
04Photograph any fish, fish sign, or aquatic life you can see. Don’t enter the water to chase it.
05Write down what you saw and how the crossing looked to you.

What would count

The drop from the pipe to the water, with something for scale. A pipe left hanging above the water is one a fish cannot swim up, and that is a fact on its own.
Up and downstream, dated. Flow is the claim most often wrong.

Kept private · never published

Wildlife sign

Use this when: The document says "no occupied habitat," "surveys found none," or "not present."

01Photograph any sign: tracks, scat, feathers, rubs, nests, dens, burrows, carcasses. Put something for scale beside it (a coin, a pole tip, your boot).
02Photograph the surroundings so the habitat shows.
03Note the time of day and the weather.
04Keep your distance from any animal. Never approach a nest or a den.
05Write down what you think it is and why. If you’re not sure, say so; a photo of unidentified sign is still sign.

What would count

Presence, not absence. Sign proves something is there; a quiet walk proves nothing.
Scale, time and habitat in the same set.

Springs and water

Use this when: The document says "no springs," "no diversion," "dry," or "ephemeral" (their word for water that only runs part of the year).

01Photograph the source and its surroundings: the wet ground, the vegetation, any pipe, trough or diversion.
02Photograph the flow with something in the frame that shows it is moving, or note that it is standing.
03Photograph any use by wildlife or stock: tracks, trampling, a trough.
04Note the date and time; springs change with a season.
05Write one paragraph. If you’ve known this spring for years, say what you’ve seen it do.

What would count

Water in the frame on a dated photo where the document said dry.
The years you’ve known it, in your own words.

Kept private · never published

Cultural resources

Use this when: The document says the area was "surveyed" and "no cultural resources were found."

01Don’t touch, move, collect or disturb anything. Ever.
02Photograph what you see from where you stand. Don’t dig, brush away or reposition.
03Don’t post these photographs anywhere. Submit them here only; they go into a sealed record.
04Write down what you saw and, if you know, what it is.

What would count

A photograph in the sealed record, with the location held under the confidentiality the law provides.
Nothing public. The public card will say only that a sensitive observation exists.

Fuel and fire condition

Use this when: The document says "hazardous fuels," "overstocked," "insect-killed," or "high mortality."

01Stand in the unit. Photograph the stand at eye level in four directions.
02Photograph the ground fuels: needles, brush, downed wood, with a pole for scale.
03Photograph whether a fire on the ground could climb: low branches and small trees making a continuous run of fuel from the forest floor up into the treetops.
04Estimate the share of standing trees that are dead in a circle around you, and write it down with the photos that show it.
05Photograph any evidence of past fire or past treatment.

What would count

Live and dead in the same frame. "Mostly green" with the photos to prove it.
The fuel on the ground and the way it connects upward, with something in the frame for scale.

Grazing

Use this when: The document says an allotment (the area a rancher is licensed to graze) is "properly functioning," "meets standards," or "improving."

01Photograph the stream banks where stock reach them: trampling, bare soil, slumping.
02Photograph the grass height with a pole or a tape beside it. If there is a fence with cattle on one side and none on the other, photograph both sides from the same spot.
03Photograph any water source stock use, and its condition.
04Note the date. How short the grass is means nothing without knowing the time of year.
05Write one paragraph on how this ground has looked over the years, if you have known it that long.

What would count

Inside versus outside a fence, same day, same scale.
Bank condition on a dated photo.

Recreation use

Use this when: The document says "low use," or "no dispersed camping" (their word for camping outside a campground), or describes how people use the place.

01Photograph the trailhead or access point with the vehicles in it. Count them and note the time and day.
02Photograph the pull-off camp spots outside any campground, the fire rings, and the worn paths that show people come here.
03Sit for a fixed time and count people passing and what they are doing.
04Write down what you know about how this place gets used across a year.

What would count

A vehicle count with the day and time. Weekends and weekdays both, if you can.
Fire rings and sites the document says aren’t there.

Local knowledge

Use this when: The document never mentions it: the spring the town draws from, the elk calving ground, the trail everybody uses, the burn from a few years back.

01Go to the place. Photograph it so someone who has never been there can see what you mean.
02Write the paragraph only you can write: what it is, how you know, how long you’ve known it, and what the project would do to it.
03If it’s a sensitive site (a nest, a den, a cultural site, a rare plant), say so and it goes into the sealed record.

What would count

A thing the agency can’t have answered yet, because nobody told it. This is often the strongest item in a record.
Your years, in your words, under your name.

Ready to go look? The map shows where. Join to hear when a need lands near you.