NEPA & Fisheries Management: Implementing Adaptive Management at Yellowstone National Park

Abstract

Adaptive management was first introduced in the late 1960s by C.S. Holling and several colleagues as a means to manage resources with increased flexibility in a system of uncertainty. Although this form of management has been in use for over fifty years, few planning efforts have successfully incorporated adaptive management and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) together into a comprehensive ecosystem-wide document defensible in court. In the face of climate change, managers are now looking for creative ways to manage resources to account for the potential effects of climate change and other factors, while re-defining “baseline data” and the possibility of failure of a resource. Yellowstone National Park completed an adaptively managed comprehensive Native Fish Conservation Plan Environmental Assessment in May 2011. With over a full year of implementation, this paper will explain why and how adaptive management was utilized under NEPA and will analyze the use of adaptive management in the fisheries program, while providing insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the approach.