Dr.
Robert T. Lackey, Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences,
Oregon State University, explains how scientists
in natural resources, ecology, conservation biology, fisheries, wildlife,
forestry, and similar disciplines are often not trusted by the public and
decision-makers. One reason is that scientists
advocating personal or organizational positions on ecological and environmental
policy issues has become widely tolerated as acceptable professional behavior
and is even encouraged by a segment of the scientific community. Especially, scientists should watch for the often
subtle creep of normative science (i.e., information that appears to be
policy neutral, but contains an embedded preference for a particular policy or
class of policies) — failing to do so risks marginalizing the essential role
that science and scientists ought to play in informing decisions on important
public policy questions.
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