To summarize and second Wayne's statement, it has been and remains politically expedient to blame the indicator for "rangeland degradation" rather than blaming 150 years or more of short-term extractive profiteering. Sometimes the research that funding agencies willingly underwrite isn't actually worth doing; but it gets done because they'll pay for it, and they'll pay for it because no US Senator will be on the phone to a Cabinet Secretary's office telling them to stop. Modeling the spread of GB plants like pinyon, juniper, cheatgrass (and mesquite, snakeweed, red brome and 'Mediterranean grass' farther south) into appropriate habitat is academically interesting — to a point — but it seems to promise little problem-solving relevance.
This isn't a whine, it's a provocation. I invite ECOLOG-L members to post examples of demonstrably effective management solutions that were instituted as a result of ecological modeling. If any can be found, we need to understand why they worked and what, if anything, they have in common. If none can be found, perhaps we need to reassess the value of modeling. Complex quantitative busywork is still busywork. Matthew K Chew Assistant Research Professor Arizona State University School of Life Sciences ASU Center for Biology & Society PO Box 873301 Tempe, AZ 85287-3301 USA Tel 480.965.8422 Fax 480.965.8330 [email protected] or [email protected] https://cbs.asu.edu/people/chew-0<http://cbs.asu.edu/people/profiles/chew.php> http://asu.academia.edu/MattChew
