New book by UA scientists stresses policy on nature

The Politics of Ecosystem Management, published earlier this year, outlines how society must change its views of scientific research and property in order to strike a balance between economic development and the environment.

The authors - Hanna Cortner, University of Arizona Renewable Natural Resources professor, and Margaret Ann Moote, senior research specialist at the UA's Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy - said the philosophy of ecosystem management sees humans not as conquerors of nature, but as its citizens and caretakers.

Landowners must not think of their property merely as a possession, but a responsibility, they wrote.

"I think it's really important that there's a focus on stewardship," Cortner said. "If there's going to be a trade-off between short-term economic gain or long-term ecological stability, we are going to [need to] choose the long-term ecological stability. In this society, we choose the short-term solution."

Moote said environmental ideals are spreading across the country.

"It's already happening in a lot of places," Moote said, "If you talk to your neighbors you'll find a lot say - 'I'm an environmentalist.'"

Moote pointed to the hundreds of community groups across the nation that are involved in everything from recycling drives to introducing native plants into their backyards.

"It's hard to find an area that doesn't have a grassroots group for conservation," she said.

Ecosystem management is really people management, Moote said.

"I think ecosystem management recognizes that humans have taken over," she said.

Environmental agencies will have to change the way they conduct scientific research, the authors said. Instead of rigid, top-down decision making, agencies have to be more flexible and take local needs into account.

Cortner envisions a "more direct involvement of citizens as lay scientists, instead of just relying on the 'experts,'" she said.

Such "civic scientists" would identify local environmental problems and goals, and assist scientists in designing their research. The community as a whole would form public policy.

Moote said she sees change coming from the grassroots level. As citizens become environmentally conscious, there will be a fundamental political change in how society sees its place in nature, she said.

While this may seem like a tall order, both authors point to an environmental rise as an important, optimistic issue.

"We think there's a significant enough change that we're not going to go back," Cortner said.