A survey of ecologists' views and knowledge about environmental policy issues

This talk will be a discussion of ESA member’s interest in and perceptions of policy issues.  Although the majority of ecologists must at some level consider how humans interact and / or impact the organisms and systems that they study, there is a large range in how ecologists are involved in environmental policy decisions.   Many ecologists are directly involved with making decisions that influence aspects of environmental policy  as employees of local, state or federal government, NGO’s, or as environmental consultants.  A large number of ecologists however, spend very little, if any time, addressing environmental policy issues as part of their regular work.  While some ecologists feel that connecting their research to policy is an essential part of their work others feel they should be focused on the basic research and let others figure out how it should be applied.   Ecologists may also feel that they would like to more actively connect their work with policy decisions, but lack the mechanisms to do so.   We will use the results of a survey of ESA member’s perceptions and involvement in policy issues to help guide discussions during this session.