Considering the Human Dimensions of Ecosystems

Last month I had the opportunity to take some time away from the office and indulge in learning. Attending the Puget Sound Georgia Basin Ecosystem Conference in Seattle was a very good use of my time since many of our clients are designing programs in response to concerns about the local issues addressed by the conference.

I’ve not attended this particular meeting before, primarily because it has been the domain of biologists and ecologists, without much application to the social sciences. This was the first year that the conference included two additional foci – management aspect (especially policy level stuff), and human aspects of ecology. I spent a good deal of time interacting with recent clients and long-standing colleagues. I ran out of business cards, which is always a sign of a good conference.

Two sessions were particularly stimulating. One was a discussion of how to incorporate humans into models of ecosystems. According to my colleagues at the PSGB conference, people have always been treated as stressors or impacts on other biological ecosystems, but never integrated in a more meaningful way themselves.

It’s intriguing to me – this new awareness that People Are Critters Too. It borders on amusing to me and I find the problem intellectually engaging. It’s almost as if people have been seen as non-natural – though we do all the same stuff that other organisms do (granted, with a lot of other unique behaviors too) -- or that people have been seen as observers of the natural world, not participants in it.

Where did that perspective come from? I wonder if Malcolm Gladwell could track it down for me.

The second session that really turned my head around was one on indicators. Biologists shared some incisive, parsimonious work about finding The One Thing that will tell us oodles about the health of certain aspects of our marine ecosystems. Analogous to a canary in a coal mine, but with implications for a variety of factors, not just human health.

My favorite section was not biological (surprised?) but social. Morgan Schneilder’s depiction of how human well-being is both supported by and impinged upon by ecosystem management was simple and brilliant. If she puts her graphic online, I'll be sure to post a link to it here.

I look forward to learning more from these new colleagues in the future, and also to contributing to their work with some of my own insights.