Adaptive Ecosystem M Anagement and the Florida Everglades: More than Trial-and-error?

Within the past decade ecosystem management has become a central theme in state and federal environmental resource management and a powerful issue in environmental policy debates. A recent survey showed that more than 600 projects related to ecosystem management are underway around the U.S. (Yaffee et al.,). Under the Clinton Administration, a high level of federal commitment to an ecosystem management approach has developed despite many obstacles (e.g., Interagency Ecosystem Management Task Force; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; U.S. General Accounting Office). Some have argued that the transition from traditional resource management to ecosystem management is inevitable because the scientific management principles that have dominated environmental policy and management in the U.S. " . . . lack the cross-disciplinary integration and informed speculation needed to be useful to a policy maker" (Tarlock, pp. 1133). Indeed, the appeal of ecosystem management for policymakers, resource managers, and scientists is significant, and its underlying concepts continue to evolve (Grumbine; Lackey; Swallow).