Bringing Conservation Biology into a Position of Influence in Natural Resource Management*

Abstract: The maintenance of biological diversity has emerged as a primary issue in natural resource management The best chance to establish biological diversity as a land management objective is on the public lands of the United States. Those lands are publicly owned legislation and regulations exist that direct attention to maintaining biological diversity, and cadres of appropriately trained people exist to formulate and carry out managementplam Tbese public lands contain 111 of the 135 Küchler potential natural vegetation types in the United States, with “adequate” representation of 102 types. It seems unlikely that large‐scale reservation of much more land will occur. Therefore, the real test for maintenance of biological diversity will occur on lands dedicated to multiple‐use management. Conservation biologists are desperately needed to focus attention on biodiversity as a management goal; to provide information necessary to guide management, to train agency personnel in the philosophy and mechanisms of prescribing biodiversity, and to make sure that conservation biology goes to work on the ground Time is short and opportunities to preserve biodiversity dimi