Science and ecosystem management in the interior Columbia basin

Abstract

Significant changes over the past 150 years in aquatic, terrestrial, landscape, and socioeconomic systems have altered biophysical systems in the interior Columbia basin. Changes and conflict in public policy concerns, such as resource use vs. restoration vs. conservation are especially evident in more than 34% of total forest and rangeland in the United States that are federally administered. In the last decade, design and implementation of complex land management strategies has become an issue for public land managers. In turn, the scientific community is often challenged to develop approaches for management of complete ecosystems. This paper discusses the use of science in the assessment and evaluation phases of one large-scale (multi-region) ecosystem management effort on federal lands in the Columbia river basin, the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project (ICBEMP), and briefly describes the evaluations of three alternative management strategies which are detailed by other papers in this issue. This paper contends that understanding the context of land management decisions is essential to defining the veracity or applicability of alternative land management strategies. Evaluating the alternatives is a complicated science process, which requires understanding the effects of each set of direction over both the short and long term, projecting the effects of those directions, making assumptions about pieces not yet developed, and modeling resource change.