The relative effectiveness of different management prescriptions for streamside management areas and buffers is an important area of study. Effective and efficient monitoring tools are needed to assess whether streamside management areas are achieving water-quality and wildlife habitat goals. A pilot project was conducted on industrial forest lands in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho to evaluate and refine field methods of assessing riparian functions. Teams monitored stream reaches for instream characteristics and functions, riparian area characteristics, and tree features. Instream characteristics measured include bankfull width, channel habitat type, dominant substrate size, stream confinement, stream gradient, stream shade, angular canopy density, topographic shading, low cover, and large woody debris. Riparian area characteristics that were measured include soil exposure, vegetative cover and species, large woody debris (on the ground), canopy cover, slope, tree seedlings, stumps, and snags. Tree inventory measures included tree size and proximity to the stream. The protocol developed was designed to provide useful information for assessing both water quality and wildlife functions. A number of suggestions about protocol modifications are provided to improve future monitoring efforts. Comparisons were made between the inland forest types monitored at the Montana sites and coastal forests monitored for the Oregon and Washington sites. Variations between and within sites have important implications for monitoring approaches. Comparisons among other monitoring approaches are also provided. The protocol, along with suggested modifications, provides companies with methods to assess the effectiveness of their stream management prescriptions.