Credibility and Advocacy of Environmental Scientists in Resource Decision Making: A Regional Study

This paper discusses some results from a regional study of the proper roles of ecological research scientists in\ud natural resource decision-making. The study was conducted in the Pacific Northwest by researchers at Oregon State\ud University and focuses on scientists involved in the Long Term Ecological Research Program (LTER). Using data from\ud interviews and mail-out surveys, the paper describes and compares the attitudes of two groups, scientists and natural resource\ud managers, regarding preferred scientist roles, advocacy by scientists, and factors affecting the credibility of scientists. Two\ud models about these roles are considered: a traditional model that separates scientists from resource decision-making and an\ud emerging model that integrates them into resource management. Survey results indicate that scientists and resource\ud managers favor the second model: both groups strongly support research scientists becoming more involved in management,\ud though neither group prefers advocacy of particular management choices by research scientists. Moreover, while scientists\ud and managers differ about the most important factors that affect the credibility of scientists, study results suggest that the\ud credibility of research scientists in management will depend in part on their ability to communicate with non-scientific\ud audiences, a factor highly valued by managers but not by scientists. Finally, the authors conclude that the results support Kai\ud Lee’s concept of civic science, in which research scientists assume a more activist, integrated role in adaptive environmental\ud management