Adaptive management and the Northwest Forest Plan -: Rhetoric and reality

Adaptive management represents a process to use management policies as a source of lea ming, which in turn can inform subsequent actions. However, despite its appealing and apparently straightforward objectives, examples of successful implementation remain elusive, and a review of efforts to implement an adaptive approach in the Northwest Forest Plan proves the point. Barriers include an institutional and regulatory environment that stymies innovation, increasing workloads coupled with declining resources that constrain learning-based approaches, and a lack of leadership. The time is right to learn from experiences and consider alternatives.