If, even under the best circumstances, conservation outcomes and impacts will take years to become apparent, don’t spend a lot of time and money monitoring to confirm the lack of change. Treat monitoring as a way to test for hypothesized changes. Design monitoring and evaluation plans that have realistic timeframes and geographic scales. Note that this mainly applies to ongoing monitoring activities that are required to detect subsequent change. Also note that the relevant timeframe for negative impacts may be different than the time frame relevant for desired change, and may require sooner or more frequent monitoring.