Ecosystem management and environmental policy in the United States: Open window or closed door?

Ecosystem management is a recent policy alternative proposed to address a new generation of environmental issues. At least 18 federal agencies are currently exploring the concept of ecosystem management and its implications for their activities. Each of the major regulatory, land and natural resource management agencies has drafted policy guidance regarding ecosystem management. And federal sector efforts are just one layer of a wider nationwide phenomenon: similar activities are occurring at state and local government levels, as well as within the nongovernmental sector. This paper addresses two questions: What is ecosystem management? Will ecosystem management endure as a land and resource management policy?