"A framework for ecosystem management is proposed. This framework assumes the purpose of ecosystem management is to maintain the integrity of ecosystems over time and space. It is based on four ecosystem principles: ecosystems are dynamic, can be viewed as hierarchies with temporal and spatial dimensions, have limits, and are relatively unpredictable. This approach recognizes that people are part of ecosystems and that stewardship must be able to resolve tough challenges including how to meet multiple demands with finite resources. The framework describes a general planning model for ecosystem management that has four iterative steps: monitoring, assessment, decision-making, and implementation. Since ecosystems cross jurisdictional lines, the implementation of the framework depends on partnerships among land managers, the scientific community, and stakeholders. It proposes that decision-making be based on information provided by the beset available science and the most appropriate technologies for land management"--Page ii

"The Integrated Scientific Assessment for Ecosystem Management for the Interior Columbia Basin links landscape, aquatic, terrestrial, social, and economic characterizations to describe biophysical and social systems. Integration was achieved through a framework built around six goals for ecosystem management and three different views of the future. These goals are: maintain evolutionary and ecological processes; manage for multiple ecological domains and evolutionary timeframes; maintain viable populations of native and desired non-native species; encourage social and economic resiliency; manage for places with definable values; and, manage to maintain a variety of ecosystem goods, services, and conditions that society wants. Ratings of relative ecological integrity and socioeconomic resiliency were used to make broad statements about ecosystem conditions in the Basin. Currently in the Basin high integrity and resiliency are found on 16 and 20 percent of the area, respectively. Low integrity and resiliency are found on 60 and 68 percent of the area. Different approaches to management can alter the risks to the assets of people living in the Basin and to the ecosystem itself. Continuation of current management leads to increasing risks while management approaches focusing on reserves or restoration result in trends that mostly stabilize or reduce risks. Even where ecological integrity is projected to improve with the application of active management, population increases and the pressures of expanding demands on resources may cause increasing trends in risk"--page ii.

This book presents an overview and introduction to adaptive ecosystem management, for an audience of environmental policymakers, scientists, engineers, planners, and administrators. Adaptive management is the process of implementing policy decisions through scientifically driven management experiments. These experiments test predictions with policy implications, and the results are then used to improve or optimize the policy outcomes. Van Eeten and Roe outline the principles and procedures recommended for adaptive ecosystem management, and then present an extensive case study and demonstration of the approach through examination of the CALFED Program. CALFED, covering the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento River Delta is the largest integrative program for ecosystem restoration and management in the US, and is an ideal testing ground for case-by-case resource management across a heterogeneous landscape, where population, resources and the environment are in conflict.

Report to the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission.