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Mountain meadows and riparian areas provide essential summer forage for ranching operations in much of the west, but such areas also provide many other critical resources and ecosystem services. As such grazing use intensity on riparian areas remains a controversial issue particularly on public land grazing permits. Grazing monitoring programs are designed to help managers 1) assess the effectiveness of riparian grazing strategies; 2) adaptively manage grazing at the allotment or sub-allotment scale; and 3) demonstrate resource management outcomes to public stakeholders. While monitoring data is a valuable management tool, available staff and funding resources can be limited. To optimize the quality and quantity of grazing utilization data we seek to develop a template for monitoring riparian area grazing use on public lands. We present results from two years of data from a collaborative monitoring program involving the University, the Forest Service and stakeholders. A total of 74 study sites have been established on six National Forests and 34 different grazing allotments in California. Mean vegetative production of enrolled study sites was considerably higher in 2016 (3760 kg/ha) compared to 2015 (2776 kg/ha), while mean grazing intensity was only slightly greater in 2015. �We compare and discuss metrics related to common grazing standards including herbaceous utilization, browsing of woody vegetation, streambank stubble height, streambank disturbance (trampling), as well as livestock fecal load density. From the first to the second field season, mean length of time to collect end of season grazing use data decreased from 37 minutes to 25 minutes per site, perhaps signaling improved efficiency with greater experience in the protocol. Our results help guide public land managers and grazing permittees in the development of effective grazing use monitoring programs and understanding of grazing data.