Trends influencing inventory practice include increasing labour costs, new technology and competing demands for land use. These trends challenge land managers to devise efficient mold-purpose inventories which yield durable data to assist land management rather than just timber management. For maximum utility, inventory design should allow integration of data collected in different places, at different times, by different agencies, or for different reasons. Three things are essential for reliable integration of data: standardization, accuracy and locational information (geocodes). Clear objectives and sufficient resources (funds and staff) are also a prerequisite. Managers should try to anticipate future information requirements, and plan to meet them. Multi-resource inventories cannot be set up overnight. It is natural that ideas and procedures evolve and mature. One should start with the possible, but plan for the future
