Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Nebraska
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Adaptive management has been and continues to be implemented around the country and world, yet few examples exist of programs successfully implementing all six steps (Assess → Design → Implement → Monitor → Evaluate → Adjust) of adaptive management. A key break point in this process seems to be synthesizing collected data and using that synthesis to tell a story about what data say in regard to key questions and hypotheses in a way that is useful to decision-makers and results in positive changes in management or policy. Research will: 1. Explore the science and policy interface in a comparative study of several adaptive management programs, 2. Provide specific background on this issue as it relates to the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program, 3. Showcase decision analysis other tools that can be used as decision support in the Platte River and other adaptive management programs, and 4. Discuss opportunities for and challenges to bridging the science/policy gap.