Fish and Fiber in an Age of Change

The compatibility between fish (in the broad sense, here meaning native aquatic organisms) and fiber in forested watersheds of North America has been of intense regulatory, scientific, and management interest for the last 50 years.  Both fish and forests are potentially renewable resources and with the proper, science-based management should be able to coexist, at least in a way that is acceptable to society as a whole.  Yet the tension that often exists between advocates for fish and advocates for forests suggests that each side often feels the other asks for “too much” and that a mutually agreeable policy balance between natural resource conservation and forest commodity production is rarely if ever achieved.  Part of the problem seems to be that stakeholders want certainty in an age when uncertainty is virtually guaranteed.  I trace scientific and fish habitat protection pathways from 1970 to the present and note that evolving management strategies follow new scientific findings, which may themselves be driven by new research tools or currently fashionable lines of investigation.  This has led to increasingly complex sets of management prescriptions and conservation plans, but even these complex strategies may not include provisions for coping with novel or unexpected types of environmental change, and as a result are subject to continuing criticism. Perhaps it is time to re-examine the approach to maintaining fish and fiber that is heavily prescriptive and oriented toward maintaining an idealistic view of what fish habitat “should” be, and instead experiment with alternative approaches that are intended to be robust in the face of changing conditions, including climate trends, invasive species, and human needs.  The dialog is likely to be uncomfortable for all parties, and as well there will be unforeseen surprises.  However, science can inform policies that better accommodate social and environmental change by continuing to identify and address emerging issues and by exploring innovative approaches to old problems.