BIG PROJECTS, BIG PROBLEMS

Our environmental concerns prompt launching large monitoring programs. Examining the history and accomplishments of similar endeavors is the best way to avoid errors. One lesson taught by the oldest and largest survey of national renewable resources in the United States, the Forest Inventory and Analysis Program, is that the program itself is not capable of learning from its errors. Among other problems that beset big programs are unrealistic promises. It is not possible to inventory ''every animal and plant species in the United States and their habitats'' as the newly created National Biological Survey vows to do. Even if it were possible, this would hardly help to attain the ultimate goal of the Survey, survival of all species. In his request to fund the Survey, Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt, compared the conflict between economic development and environmental integrity with train wrecks. This metaphor is as brilliant as it is deceitful. Its brilliance, attested by the success with the press and legislature, is in a vivid and blithe image suggesting that, given sufficient information, the conflict could be averted. After all, railroad accidents are rare and avoidable exceptions. This hopeful situation cannot be honestly compared with the plight of our environment. The crucial piece of information - that there is no spare track for economic development - is readily available. Our population and economic growth take place in the same space that has already been fully occupied by other species. To be trustworthy, monitoring programs should face the reality that development necessitates environmental degradation.