October 3, 2018
Today, Science
Advances publishes a formal response entitled ‘Artelle
et al. (2018) Miss the Science Underlying North American Wildlife Management’.
This response, authored by a broad group of scientists, wildlife managers, and
conservation professionals in the United States and Canada, reveals the
unfortunate errors in the Artelle et al.
article which inaccurately concluded that state and provincial fish and
wildlife agencies in North America are managing wildlife without using
science.
“We are happy to report that state and provincial fish and
wildlife management is indeed guided by a broad range of scientific information,
deployed by individuals who have extensive scientific training, in order to
conserve our nations natural resources for future generations,” said Ed Carter,
President of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and Executive
Director of Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. “Our state fish and wildlife agencies use all
means at their disposal to manage and conserve their most valuable resources, our
fish and wildlife, along with clean air, water, healthy forests and
agricultural lands that support all of us.”
Artelle et al. (2018)
Miss the Science Underlying North American Wildlife Management highlights
several key errors in the original Artelle et al. paper. First, Artelle et al. confuse the process of
conducting scientific research with the process of managing wildlife or other
natural resources: while wildlife and natural resource management is informed
by science, management activities may not always conform to the same principles
and format as a scientific research project.
Furthermore, the primary source of information for the Artelle et al.
paper was a series of wildlife management reports and documents that they
downloaded from agency websites; these authors did not actually meet with state
and provincial wildlife agency managers to learn how science is applied in
real-world wildlife management. Artelle
et al. identified a set of “hallmarks of science” and then examined their
collection of documents and reports from agency websites to see if these
“hallmarks” appeared in these management documents. Artelle et al. mistakenly concluded that an
absence of their “hallmarks of science” from agency documents meant that these
documents are not grounded in science, when in fact scientific information is considered
by wildlife managers at each step in the decision-making process.
The Association would like to acknowledge the authors of Artelle et al. (2018) Miss the Science
Underlying North American Wildlife Management: Jonathan R. Mawdsley (AFWA),
John F. Organ (USGS), Daniel J. Decker (Cornell University), Ann B. Forstchen
(Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission), Ronald J. Regan (AFWA),
Shawn J. Riley (Michigan State University), Mark S. Boyce (University of
Alberta), John E. McDonald Jr. (The Wildlife Society), Chris Dwyer (U. S. Fish
and Wildlife Service), and Shane P. Mahoney (Conservation Visions).
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The Association of Fish &
Wildlife Agencies represents North America’s fish and wildlife agencies to
advance sound, science-based management and conservation of fish and wildlife
and their habitats in the public interest. The Association represents its state
agency members on Capitol Hill and before the Administration to advance
favorable fish and wildlife conservation policy and funding and works to ensure
that all entities work collaboratively on the most important issues. The
Association also provides member agencies with coordination services on
cross-cutting as well as species-based programs that range from birds, fish
habitat and energy development to climate change, wildlife action plans,
conservation education, leadership training and international relations.
Working together, the Association’s member agencies are ensuring that North
American fish and wildlife management has a clear and collective voice.
View our press release here: www.fishwildlife.org/landing/blog/science-does-guide-wildlife-management-north-america-scientists-and-conservation-leaders-respond-artelle-et-al
