Science and ecosystem management in the interior Columbia basin

Significant changes over the past 150 years in aquatic, terrestrial, landsc ape, and socioeconomic systems have altered biophysical systems in the inte rior Columbia basin. Changes and conflict in public policy concerns, such a s resource use vs. restoration vs. conservation are especially evident in m ore than 34% of total forest and rangeland in the United States that are fe derally administered. In the last decade, design and implementation of comp lex land management strategies has become an issue for public land managers . In turn, the scientific community is often challenged to develop approach es for management of complete ecosystems. This paper discusses the use of s cience in the assessment and evaluation phases of one large-scale (multi-re gion) ecosystem management effort on federal lands in the Columbia river ba sin, the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project (ICBEMP), and briefly describes the evaluations of three alternative management strategi es which are detailed by other papers in this issue. This paper contends th at understanding the context of land management decisions is essential to d efining the veracity or applicability of alternative land management strate gies. Evaluating the alternatives is a complicated science process, which r equires understanding the effects of each set of direction over both the sh ort and long term, projecting the effects of those directions, making assum ptions about pieces not yet developed, and modeling resource change. Publis hed by Elsevier Science B.V.