FROM RHETORIC TO REALITY - USING SPECIFIC ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS TO IDENTIFY CRITICAL SUSTAINABILITY ISSUES

Natural resource managers, environmental interest groups, and public a gencies are interested in appropriate, identifiable, and measurable in dicators of sustainability. At the same time, public agencies, includi ng natural resource management agencies, are attempting to identify re search and management priorities that address major environmental conc erns at local and broad scales. The Identify the Specifics approach, d escribed here, uses local (ecodistrict or smaller) ecological/biologic al ''experts''' knowledge to identify and prioritize the local natural resources of concern (commonly species), associated management practi ces and ecosystems to form a concern matrix. Local ecological/biologic al concerns form the environmental base of a broader-scale (ecoregion/ ecozone) concern matrix. This matrix identifies similarities and diffe rences among local matrices and appropriate components for promotion t o broader scales. Scale-specific matrices identify appropriate local, regional, and broader-scale indicators to monitor and assess, and prov ide public agencies with direction for documenting effects of manageme nt and identifying where research is needed. This approach can provide industries, public agencies, environmental interest groups, and gover nments with ecosystem-based, prioritized in formation for balancing so cial economic, and ecological concerns on public and private lands.