On the other hand, the book would have benefited from a more limited selection of project reports with more in-depth descriptions of each. The chief weakness of the authors' approach is that the catalog attributes of the study overwhelm the assessment aspects. There are several characteristics of ecosystem management that, nevertheless, emerge from the authors' broad-scale approach. Using bar graphs to present cumulative responses to several key questions, the authors portray concisely a large volume of information. The following seemed to me to be the most useful insights from the study.
State agencies are also very involved with ecosystem management, a fact that the authors highlight.
The National Park Service has not been very involved, despite national parks being obvious places to experiment with an ecosystem approach. Managers in this assessment suggest that the twin goals of ecosystem protection and restoration are what drive projects. Those who remain skeptical about the use of ecosystem management may be confusing ultimate goals with the strategies that agencies are using to attain protection and restoration of ecosystems. This is where ecosystem management has a great chance of democratizing resource management decision-making. It is little wonder that success in these young projects is described in terms of improved communication and cooperation.