Modern Wild Faunal Resource System Management
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Prof. Herbert Kramel once told me of his boyhood training in guerilla activity during World War II in preparation for defense of his town against the Nazis. He studied where he as a child would dump a truck load of sand to most disrupt transportation if the town was invaded.
| 1I presented these concepts several times over the years to my graduate student classes and a few senior classes. The mixed reaction to them over that time has surprised me. Therefore, they may not be copied or used in any way. Once a student complained that these ideas were evil and had no responsible place in the University. Another student said that there is nothing new here, comments unnecessary, and certainly the ideas do not deserve grouping it under "subversion" since that is "just the way the world is." Perhaps everything within wildlife resource management has not been resolved. |
I have decided to write for students how to subvert the wildlife management system. There are negative connotations to "subversion" but it is exactly what I mean. It can be used for good or evil; it can be used in an offensive as well as defensive mode. I do not advocate subversion, in general ... only in the particular. I present these concepts as observations of options available to students and thus practicing managers for their use. Equally important, I present them as the means by which a person may know when they are being subverted by someone else.
I contend that any topic must be fair game in the University, that an analysis may be helpful, and that advocacy is neither desirable nor intended. I would equivocate if I did not express a personal opinion, clearly Machiavellian, that in some natural resource issues, the ends justify the means. When resources are seen in a human-context and as being the means by which people can achieve their humanity, then they become subject to moral and ethical scrutiny. The continuing questions are in the areas of how do we know what to do? How do we know the limits of appropriate action? How do we balance the costs and losses of a few in the short term to the savings and gains for many over the longrun? What makes alternative means to the same good ends good or bad? Perhaps this lecture / essay will clarify these questions, if not the answers. It is a useful debate, for in every thinking manager's career, chances for engaging the questions arise frequently. In some cases a pious manager may make an ethical choice (or non-choice), refuse subversion, and have heaped on him or her the guilt of resource loss for thousands of people for hundreds of years.
The question of subversion is dealt with in the book Ecology: The Subversive Science. Its implications must be explored. There are dimensions to the concept that are far ranging. They range from skillful use of logic to perverse use of fear. They include planning and watershed management as the means of doing wildlife management. They include imposing inter agency quality control techniques and devices as the means to getting improved management.
The process of thinking about subversion can be healthy, for wildlifers are, as a group, humanitarians, relatively naive, and inclined to be optimists. An alternative status, at least for a moment, may not be acceptable, but the perspective may be revealing. The wildlifer as culprit may not be a bad condition or frame of reference ... at least for a few moments. The very word subversion is not only a label for a set of techniques and approaches, but it is a unique vantage point from which new insights may be gained about wildlife management. No philosophic task is more useful than restating the essential platitudes in fresh words.
It will be no surprise that the general system provides the framework, for designing subversive strategies and tactics. Rather than a design structure, perhaps the pieces of the -general system provide the powder holes within which our collective charges can be placed that will cost aside the old structures for the new ones that view are sorely needed.
INPUTS
Information
"Information is power" said Bacon. Expertise is amassed information. To have experts is to have power. The Associates (Giles 1978) and the concept advanced within Lasting Forests is a way to gain experts and information with minimum costs. Libraries are power-centers; retrieval is the key. If an agency had a library, computer access to others, and a large data base, this power would (a) retard spurious claims and assertions (knowing someone from the center is likely to challenge), (b) gain ability to produce reports and documents readily and cheaply, and (c) experience the extra or synergistic effects of having data available on several topics simultaneously. Examples are the WKB, developing a school or program for Extension agents and teachers, and developing new Web-based information systems with a rapid-retrieval component.
As discussed elsewhere research is one way of knowing. When done well and within the concept of progressive, sophisticated modern faunal resource system management, it is one way to know things. It is a means to produce good inputs to decisions.
The Right Research
Selecting the right research may be subversive. The project selected may not be the most exciting or most needed, but if it is likely to give abundant, conspicuous payoff, it might be the passport to doing research viewed as most needed, but not readily supportable. The cost of doing this preparatory research may be a few years delay and the pain of working on a peripheral interest. Some Nobel prize winners report a long and meticulously planned pathway taken to achieve the prize. See also Giles (1982) Env. Mgmt. 6:185-191.
The Bomb
The ultimate in research grantsmanship is to call a world wide conference of experts, blow up the meeting room, and take over from the ashes. Some fateful day after such an event I shall probably be arrested for this (having just given this lecture), for I have thought the unthinkable. More than playing around with ideas, which is all that the above signifies, the above minor demonstration with words also suggests at least; (1) the need for dispersed meetings (to be on guard against any catastrophe in an agency or small scientific community), (2) the question of what is critical mass and numbers of active scientists, within a researchable area, and (3) the consequence to the field of total loss of a group of experts.
Techniques Strategy
A wildlife management researcher may not want to work on techniques but may get support for desired research by couching the objectives in terms of developing techniques. Conversely, a researcher may want to perfect a technique that can have nationwide utility but, due to various policy and other constraints, can only get support if he or she describes a project in other terms and then just happens to have to perfect a technique in order to test the stated hypothesis.
New but Old Strategy
A useful strategy is to seek funds only for completed projects. When funds are gained, each project is completed on time. The objectives are always achieved. The contractual obligations are always met. New funds are then used for the next project. One strategist reported using this concept but never got a grant because all reviewers knew the results hypothesized could never be achieved! Then he could not report his finding!
OBJECTIVES
The "Form Them" Strategy
Studies show that once objectives are clearly seen, students, staff, and other quickly fall in line and perform. Stating objectives is the most important point of power in any human system.
The Estuary Strategy
Focus on the estuary. By looking at land and natural resource issues from some final outcome, the estuary, it is possible to influence objectives in undreamed ways. Profound constraints are placed on ecological systems when an objective is stated for the final outcome. The estuary is " very final" and once such laws are passed or policy established, almost all other actions are influenced. Lesser "final conditions" may be established. As in Rural System, the requirement to make profits over the long run, to sustain them, is a profound constraint and prevents (at least resists) any degradation of the system.
The Secondary Purpose Strategy.
Argue for the secondary purpose. Preventing loss of an endangered species may be your intent, but arguing against a dam on a cost-benefit ratio may be more likely to succeed. There is no merit in arguing for the right reason ... and losing. There is no law that states credit must be given where it is due. The law of pragmatism - it must work- may be the only relevant law for an endangered species.
A natural stream may be "a source of zoological recharge" to downstream waters, but that knowledge or phrasing it as the objective is not likely to cause a stream to be named, marked, or preserved. The attack should be against things such as road salt because it causes costly road repavement, against stocking for various high cost and no-returns reasons, or against poor lumbering practices (that affect the stream).
PROCESSES AND METHODS
There are many subversive strategies and tactics: I give them name, partially for amusement.
Removing the Blocks
To remove blocks to progress, a unified strategy is needed: (1) appreciate the historical past, (2) know the subject well, (3) know the laws of the agencies, particularly mission, (4) know the people affected (who speaks for the salmon?), (5) achieve coordination, (6) avoid faddism and the "sheik", (7) exercise creativity, (8) keep current, and (9) strive for excellence. Competency and balance, very general concepts, are guiding ideas. Active work is essential; we in wildlife management have defaulted to the movies, mass media, and extremist organizations, not mounting our own planned, integrated, programs or engaging in decisive action.
Plan for cutbacks
Maintain extra or overage of non-essentials, then when cutbacks come, the system remains intact.
The Agenda
Develop an agenda. This is a plan but it sounds like something for a meeting. Most plans are too large and too many changes occur before they can be implemented, even in parts.
The Counter-intuitive
Rationally employ the counterintuitive. When events in very large systems occur and they seem counter to the intuition, then these events can be exploited. Such events occur because of the complex interactions and feedbacks operating in large systems. It is possible to get a desired outcome even if it occurs unexpectedly, due to the workings of the system. This strategy requires a great knowledge of the system and may require systems analysis and modeling. These are likely to be cost effective, for such models have many types of uses and payoffs.
The Sensitive
Attack the sensitive point. The need is to get the greatest desired change in some systems performance criterion (C) per unit change in a sensitive factor(F). The need is to maximize C/F/Cost. In most modeling work it is possible to do sensitivity analysis. In such analyses it can be discovered when a system is stable to any change in a factor and to which factors the system is responsive. By analyzing sensitivity, by discovering how precariously a system is balanced, and where to apply pressure, big change can be made with relatively little effort.
Publicity
Appear at least as good as you are. Races are often won by people who stick out their chests.
The Regional
In response to an order to cut back on the number of regions and staff, where there are three regions, cut them back to 2. Then divide these two into subregions. Therefore minimum required staffing per subregion results in having more personnel and justification than originally. (This was a ploy used by an agency in 1975).
Impound It Strategy
Aquaculture (an area under water), ponds, or lakes is one way to "restore" a damaged resource if it appears that there is no effective way to restore the ecosystem. Change the name of its land use! (as from forest to pond).
Whistle Blowing Without Lips
Often objectives cannot be achieved for reasons of a charlatan, an idiot, an incompetent. Get someone else such as a club to see the difficulty. Sponsor a field trip; get reporters (Radio, TV, newspaper, college journalists) to look at an issue. Make resources on a topic readily available. Invite Outdoor Writers etc. When necessary, blow the whistle yourself. Clarify the losses and compute the likely future conditions. There is suspicion about some wildlife managers, the neo-invertebrate.
The Constraint
Produce a critical constraint. It may not be possible to get a person or agency to do what is desired, but it is often possible to reduce the harm done or prevent a harmful secondary effect. Law, policy, regulation, (and even threats) can be used to constrain a set of decisions so they may not be "right", but they can be made less wrong.
As an example, a community may want to control its population size to stabilize the quality of life within it. Rather than attack such a problem openly, it may be possible to impose a constraint such that no further building permits can be issued when the sewage system is within 95% of capacity. The results and effect on population size may be identical. There are other constraints in such a system such as BTU's burned/year, house size, house insulation, lot set-back-requirements for buildings, and even house size. All of these constraints influence housing costs and children that can be afforded. They do not put on strict limitations but have effects on populations. Cotton and tobacco allotments, for example, influence the amount of land use and pesticide effects on wildlife. Major environmental constraints are water discharge or effluent, air quality, soil limitations, ground water, and boundaries (e.g., wilderness).
The Cost Effective
Force others within the agency or related agencies to participate in a cost-effectiveness game. It is a rough game but one easy to win for at least a few years. Progress is best measured in terms of cost effectiveness not efficiency. Cost of reaching a target, not cost of moving from some known point is the desirable criterion. A claim of "I'm more cost effective than you" can stimulate objectives to be set, policy changes, funds reallocated, and reward-systems restructured.
Seasonal Planning
Plan to reduce money loss. To work hard to get an extra $300 to $1,000 annual allotment and then to see 3 workers sit through 3 rainy days and not do any work while you pay them $4 per hour ($288) is not rational management. There are abundant inclement weather day activities: maps, data, signs, tools, reading, instruction, painting, phone surveys, etc.
I've spent more than an appropriate amount of time driving a truck to get equipment where it was needed. My salary was much too great for truck driving. In some cases it cannot be helped but inappropriate use of time can be cut by planning. The analogy of the land doctor is instructive. The doctor can do all of the activities of the hospital, but he or she is at his or her best when diagnosing and prescribing and doing sensitive, critical treatment. The wildlife manager can be a truck driver, article typist, or plan writer.
The Intensive Society
Argue for an intensive industry - e.g., agriculture, reservoirs, game farms, recreation -- all of these require quality environments to be highly successful. Promote widespread bee-keeping. A profitable regional honey-producing enterprise requires high quality environments.
The Competitor
A polluting industry may be talked into quality controls by creating a liability threat and encouraging the controls so it will not be blamed for the errors of its neighbors.
The Surplus
Capture the surplus. Every system operates with at least a little surplus. Most administrators are conservative and have a protection fund or buffer so they do not overspend a budget due to unforeseen events. One or two months before the end of a fiscal year they say "spend it" By having a project or two in reserve or a requisition prepared, these funds (highly predictable) can be captured by the prepared wildlifer. That there will be a need is almost surety.
Political Chips Friends, favors, " owe you one" all need to be gained. The new wildlifer in an area does not have any and is limited in abilities to move ahead. Knowing they must be gained is part of the status of the professional. Spending them wisely is difficult.
The Crisis Ploy
Go for a unwanted project. Then trade votes; suffer "defeat" reluctantly, then gain benefits or political chips for later use.
The Flexible
Achieve budget flexibility. Money, like information, is managerial power. If stored, unavailable, in a rush to be spent, or "constrained" in use it may not be of any use. There is a need to get as much flexibility in ability to spend money as possible. In state or federal agencies as well as the enterprise this is difficult but can be done, carefully, by
Personal Buying
Buy it yourself! Set a personal budget; itemize it. Keep good records. Show business expenditures on the annual tax forms. Work for personal efficiency. Failing to buy a book, mail a package, buy a lock to replace one destroyed...are all out of pocket expenses that a reasonable professional will make. I once had to buy condoms to package the explosive powder for an experimental cannon net for waterfowl. I knew I would never get a purchase order for condoms (in the early '60s) through the state. I bought them!
Design Committees
Using the equation for relations, I = N (N -1), it can be seen that a committee of 5 has 5 x (5-1) or 20 potential relations that must be managed by the skillful group leader. A committee of 4 has only 12 such relations that need to be tended and managed. A change of one or two members can make a very big difference in committee progress to be made.
The Multiple Use/Ecosystem Ploy
Employ an ecosystem management strategy rather than a "protectionist" or "adversary" approach. Argue for the wildlife resource's fair place in the large, complex, decision-making arena. If given a fair place, then you have to take the consequences.
FEEDFORWARD
The Scenario - Argue for a dismal future (doomsday) predicting it will not come true if the threats and motivation of your speech are effective.
In general, scenarios are at least as effective as simple do's and don'ts. Most people deduce rightly, quickly.
Most feedforward procedures (including the word) are unknown. Use them.
FEEDBACK
Be careful. Do the ends justify the means? If so, when?
Not subversion? What is the proper word or phrase?
What are other strategies?
Situation:
Wildlifer met Mr. Big and took him on a tour. They got stuck but finally pushed through a bad spot in the road. At the end of the road they came to a bridge. They could cross and return to the office. They did not want to go back the way they came. The sign by the bridge said " No Crossing." It looked safe; they tried it and the bridge collapsed. In the water, what was the first thing the manager did?
(place pointer on the question here)
What do you think? Is this a joke?
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Last revision January 19, 2004.