Stewardship of lands and waters requires ongoing assessments of their status. Information on ecosystem or vegetation types, their patterns, levels of protection, and current condition, and climate-induced stressors are core components of such assessments. These classifications provide essential information on ecosystem diversity, and provide a framework for understanding natural ranges of variability and responses to anthropogenic stressors. The assessments need to be comprehensive, whether focused on entire ecoregions or on special elements of biodiversity, such as wetlands or forests. The goal of this session is to highlight recent developments in both ecoregion wide and targeted ecosystem type assessments. For example, The Bureau of Land Management has engaged with partners to conduct comprehensive ecoregional assessment in a number of ecoregions, including the Mojave and Central Basins. As part of an expanding set of wetland condition assessment methods, the Environmental Protection Agency is launching a National Wetland Condition Assessment in 2011. We will present the goals and methods for each type of assessment, starting with ecoregional assessments, highlight the role that classifications provide in helping guide the assessment, and how these assessments will inform management decisions on the ground.