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Title:	ARM! For the future: adaptive resource management in the wildlife profession
Author(s):	Lancia, Richard A.; Braun, Clait E.; Collopy, Michael W.; Dueser, Raymond D.; Kie, John G.; Martinka, Clifford J.; Nichols, James D.; Nudds, Thomas D.; Porath, Wayne R.; Tilghman, Nancy G.
Date:	1996
Source:	Wildlife Society Bulletin. 24(3):436-442. (Ed. Note: Nancy G. Tilghman [Herbert] is the Station’s author for this publication.)
Description:	The authors encourage wildlife professionals to shift from a traditional, agricultural paradigm to an ecological one through adaptive resource management (ARM). The wildlife profession has a long-established tradition of examining and debating the quality and direction of wildlife research. This introspection is good, for it encourages the profession to improve and mature. In this essay, the authors provide what we hope will be a significant milepost in that process by advocating a general philosophy and protocol for wildlife research and management. Rather than articulating a list of specific research priorities and reiterating the need for additional research money, the authors encourage an encompassing, fundamental shift that will promote more efficient use of current research and management dollars. Over the last several years, various groups and many individuals interested in the management of natural resources have recognized a need for reform in natural resources-related research. These include the Ecological Society of America's Committee for a Research Agenda for the 1990's, the National Research Council's Committee on Forestry Research, the Society of American Forester's Task Force on Sustaining Long-term Forest Health and Productivity, and many others. There appears to be a general consensus that change is due. Furthermore, intensifying political debates about management of natural resources (e.g., timber harvests and ancient forests, sustainable development, and the preservation-conservation of biodiversity) call for integrated research and management to address uncertainty in wildlife and ecosystem management, and thereby ameliorate controversy in the future. Research and management can no longer afford to be "two solitudes"; distinctions between basic and applied research have blurred. The central issue is the application of sound scientific principles to solve problems.
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