At the other end of the spectrum, the media and the politicians want 'big picture' answers. They wish to zoom back out and see not the fine minutiae, but the approximate population sizes and dynamics, generally of those species which are, for one reason or another, important. This, of course, ignores the fact that in the real environment, all species have an important role to play. Ecologists generally have a good understanding of how the ecosystem works in their specialist area, but politics also plays a part of the whole picture, and, cynicism aside, the economic right is a long distance from the tree hugging left. The ecologist fits in somewhere, but circumstances must determine where.
Motives are the key ingredient.
Mining companies often employ consultant ecologists to prepare environmental impact statements so that they can argue the case for exploiting a resource somewhere. But, such staff cannot serve two masters. It is most unlikely, for example, that a radical environmental activist would be considered suitable for a position as an environmental consultant to an economically driven real estate development project. And at the same time, the purists from academia scoff at the necessarily shallow depth of such broadly qualified people. Pure, narrow research has given many solutions to tricky problems which, when viewed from the wider perspective, have set alarm bells ringing.