As the intensity of the debates concerning land use assessments and planning inexorably increase, and the resultant allocation of increasingly scarce natural re-sources produces winners and losers, there is a parallel and in-creasing demand for the application of "good science" in the process. This demand is heard—and equally loudly—from those on each side of increasingly polarized issues related to public land management issues. In other words, the participation of scientists and the application of science are being increasingly demanded, in principal at least, and are increasingly confused in application.