The goal of the South Platte-Hayman Burn Area Effectiveness Monitoring Project is to measure the long-term effects of post-fire restoration efforts in the Hayman Burn area being completed under the three-year Upper South Platte/Hayman Conservation Campaign through the National Forest Foundation. The campaign, initiated in 2010, is the driving force behind efforts to reduce sediment output and increase aquatic habitat and stream channel stability in a number of critical sub-basins within the Hayman burn area. 

Multiple projects are being completed and include riparian restoration, obliteration of decommissioned forest roads and trails, enhancement and relocation of trails away from active stream channels, tree planting, noxious weed eradication, and wildlife habitat restoration. All restoration work is to be completed by the end of 2012. An effectiveness monitoring  plan was designed in conjunction with personnel from the Pike National Forest and the Rocky Mountain Research Station and was implemented in 2011. Eight project sites representing projects that fell within three category types were selected. Category types are as follows:

• Type 1- Road or Trail Decommissioning, Closure, Obliteration, or Relocation
• Type 2- Vegetation Treatment
• Type 3- Ephemeral Channel Stabilization

Each of the project sites will be monitored over a period of three years following the project’s completion to assess the project's success in restoring the degraded landscape with the desired outcome of reduced sediment transport and increased vegetation cover.