Beyond the Limits of Traditional Science: Bioregional Assessments and Natural Resource Management
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PNW Pacific Northwest INSIDE Research Station Taking Stock of Large Assessments . 2 The Genesis of a New Tool . 3 Sharpening a New Tool. 4 Are You Sure of Your Conclusions? . 4 A New Kind of Science . 4 Lessons After the Fact . 5 FINDINGS issue twenty-four / may 2000 “Science affects the way we think together.” Lewis Thomas BEYOND THE LIMITS OF TRADITIONAL SCIENCE: BIOREGIONAL ASSESSMENTS AND NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN SUMMARY Bioregional assessments to deal with critical, even crisis, natural resource issues have emerged as important meeting grounds of science, manage- ment, and policy across the United States. They are placing heavy demands on science, scientists, and science organizations to compile, Managers, scientists, and stakeholders continue to work more closely together to define ➢ how to better integrate scientific, technical, and social concerns into land management synthesize, and produce data, without policy. crossing the line from policy recom- “We are now entering a new resource decisions have been made over mendations to actual decisionmaking. the past 15 years, and not just in the Pacific era, in which science and Northwest. There is no blueprint for their conduct, scientists—along with managers Traditional use versus potential develop- and stakeholders—will be but lessons from past experience can ment in New England’s north woods, intimately and continuously consumptive water use versus ecological help stakeholders—Forest Service involved with natural resource values in Florida’s Everglades, old-growth policy development…However, forest habitat versus logging in the Pacific scientists, Research Stations, land Northwest, land development versus we are still very much at the species conservation in southern California. managers, policymakers, and the stage of learning how the There are many more. public—to proceed productively in scientific, the technical, and “All too often, we find that these region- the social can be integrated.” level crises have developed in areas where future assessments. Jerry Franklin, 1999 people have started to stew in their own juices in terms of natural resource use,” ourt ordered and crisis driven. says Fred Swanson. “There’s even a plausi- A person could be forgiven for ble theory that some systems have been C believing that’s how natural managed in ways that have led almost inevitably to ecological and social crisis.” Whatever the reason, the bioregional assessment is emerging nationwide as a KEY FINDINGS first-step approach for addressing such crises. These large-scale assessments are • Bioregional assessments are playing critical, nontraditional roles in addressing efforts to build knowledge about a issues of compatibility of natural resource uses.They are commonly born in region—understanding the social and natural resource crises, which adds greatly to the challenge of conducting the ecological condition, and possible futures, of assessments and then developing socially acceptable management plans by a region—before decisionmaking and using the assessment information. management action. • No standard blueprint exists for conduct of bioregional assessments, but Although these assessments differ widely in devices are available to help structure their various stages, such as a charter, approach and style, there is a common broad peer review, and subsequent science consistency checks. theme: a region that recognizes the latest brush fire as the sign of a far larger prob- • Scientists are not well prepared by traditional science training to participate in lem. Typically, the quest then begins for the broad scales and social contexts of bioregional assessments.This has impli- “science-based” solutions. cations for how research organizations accomplish assessments. “Bioregional assessments are not new: Lewis and Clark could be said to have leaders are putting on the U.S. scientific “Bioregional assessments have become an done one of the first in the Western establishment to focus more heavily on important medium for scientists responding United States. But what is new in recent problems of immediate social and to this charge.” years is the pressure Congress and science economic relevance,” Swanson says. TAKING STOCK OF LARGE ASSESSMENTS ioregional assessments attempt to critiquing seven assessments (Johnson and build information with relevant others). Purpose of detail about the ecology and sociol- PNW Science Findings B The assessments were already raising tough ogy of a region. The scientists involved To provide scientific information questions. What is the appropriate role of neither make decisions nor advocate to people who make and influence scientists in such projects? For which policy particular actions. Rather, says Swanson, decisions about managing land. questions is science most likely to have they provide information, and in later useful answers? And from the cynics, is PNW Science Findings is published stages, may assess whether all the science the bioregional assessment one more monthly by: was considered and interpreted correctly, government-funded, technology-driven Pacific Northwest Research Station and whether the risks were revealed. research exercise, with no useful outcome? USDA Forest Service Swanson, a research geologist with the P.O. Box 3890 “In the recent past, bioregional science Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station Portland, Oregon 97208 studies have addressed wide-ranging topics (503) 808-2137 in Corvallis, Oregon, participated in the such as the history of land use, patterns of Forest Ecosystem Management Assessment Sherri Richardson Dodge, Editor nitrogen cycling in response to atmospheric Team (FEMAT) assessment in 1993 from [email protected] pollution, and ecological effects of urbaniza- which the Northwest Forest Plan resulted tion,” says Greene. “Bioregional assess- Carlyn Mitas, Design & layout the next year. ments, however, have a distinctive emphasis [email protected] Because bioregional assessments were on interactions between development and clearly expanding their influence, Swanson, conservation, including biological and water scientific institutions themselves, leery of PNW Research Station Forest ecologist resources. Thus, they require a greater the potential influences on their work. As Sarah Greene, Oregon State University breadth of understanding, as well as understanding of forest and range manage- professor of forest management Norman attempting to meet more immediate infor- ment has broadened and taken ecosystem Johnson, and science writer Peg Herring mation needs for society.” function as a fundamental component, convened a conference of people experi- For much of the early part of the century, however, recognition of the increasing enced with bioregional assessments in 1995 the line between management and science complexity and scope of the environmental to discover what could be learned from has been distinct. Direct involvement of problems to be tackled has pushed the regional experience with this new approach scientists with policymaking is strongly research and management worlds ever around the country. This resulted in the discouraged, both by managers and by closer. publication of a book summarizing and Check out our web site at: http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw United States Forest Service Department of Agriculture 2 Today scientists frequently find themselves on the front lines of natural resource issues. LAND MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS They can be attacked for not producing adequate data to support policy decisions • Managers participating in bioregional assessments can look at other cases and at the same time as they are pushed harder experience from around the United States to see how their counterparts to produce results on the deadlines achieved success or failure, in order to guide their own efforts toward maxi- imposed by policymakers. Sometimes, they mum success. are not brought in at the start of an assess- • Social needs for information and the demand for “science-based” management ment to help design its progress. Other are here to stay.Thus the difficult challenge of integrating information from times they are forced—along with different scientific disciplines, particularly the ecological and social, and espe- managers and stakeholders—to work with- cially over large areas, requires ongoing consideration and commitment from out a clear charter or set of objectives. land managers. Nonetheless, the call for “science-based decisions” has become widespread.The role • Institutional arrangements and information management ought to be configured of scientists as key players in bioregional to foster continued development and learning, in land management agencies as assessments is not unusual. much as research institutions. Dealing with large-scale natural resource issues is not a one-time proposition, but one of continuous evolution. THE GENESIS OF A NEW TOOL s the extent of assessments across ➢ the country suggests, the spectrum Locations of the of motivations is broad. Most often, a A seven bioregional bioregional effort is born in a natural assessments men- resource crisis, greatly increasing the chal- tioned in Johnson lenge of conducting the assessment and and others (1999). developing socially acceptable management Even this limited plans. Clearly, the bioregional assessment is sample of bioregional not a one-of-a-kind creature. assessments reveals that they have been FEMAT started out as a time-limited effort concluded across to deal with the challenge the condition of many parts of the the northern