Compass and Gyroscope: Integrating Science and Politics for the Environment. Kai N. Lee 1993.

Kai N. Lee builds on his experience as a member of the Northwest Power Planning Council to argue for adaptive management in public policy making. Lee decribes a policy world which blurs the boundaries between science and policy. Good policy, in effect, draws from the scientific method to ensure individual, social and institutional learning. The most common approach to ecosystem management, trial and error, is simply not good enough. Policies and practices must be directed to test specific hypothesis about how ecosystems work. The institutional context must embrace a learning environment, be willing to admit mistakes, and acknowledge the high degree of uncertainty involved in ecosystem management. Since these institutional conditions rarely hold, Lee outlines general guidelines for managers seeking to apply adaptive management principles in their shop. He speaks first and foremost as a scientist, but as an extraordinarily experienced policy maker as well. The necessary absractions are supported with concrete examples from the management of the Columbia River Basin.