The legacy of fire exclusion, coupled with rapid changes in climate, have led to a dramatic increase in the frequency of large-magnitude disturbances across the west, including massive, high-severity stand-replacing fires. Given the scale of disturbance and implementation challenges, research and monitoring are needed to help prioritize management actions on the landscape including reducing or modifying forest fuels, facilitating reforestation, reducing the spread of invasive species, and maintaining forested habitat that can support wildlife populations. To tackle these challenges several research scientists from the USFS Pacific Southwest and Pacific Northwest Research Stations combined their expertise to develop a single, robust sampling design to answer some of the major land management questions emerging in this era of uncharacteristic wildfire and uncertain climate affects. Desired outcomes for this research are to (1) collaborate with managers to prioritize management actions where they are most needed through the development of a restoration portfolio that, (2) incorporate research plans targeted to the restoration decisions, and (3) improve an understanding of the efficacy of different management actions to direct future landscape conditions that can support functioning ecosystems.