PARENT SESSION
Symposium #15: The Ecology-Policy Interface: Interests, Information, and Making Decisions.

Organized by: AC Keller and P Alpert
Tuesday, August 6. 1:00 PM to 4:30 PM. Leo Rich Theatre.

Bringing science to the doorstep of policy: The Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board.

Young, Terry^*,1, ¹ Environmental Defense, Oakland, CA

ABSTRACT- Since its creation by Congress in 1978,the Environmental Protection Agency's Science Advisory Board (SAB) has provided both peer review and prospective advice to the Agency on a range of scientific issues. Although the SAB's advice often is generated amid the heat of controversial regulatory activity, its role is to provide scientific reviews and not policy recommendations. The proscription to steer clear of policymaking does not, however, require the SAB to avoid designing a relevant scientific foundation upon which informed policy can be built. In some cases, the SAB spots a need for scientific input and offers it unasked. The recent publication of "A Framework for Assessing and Reporting on Ecological Condition" is a case in point. After reviewing a series of Agency products, the SAB's Ecological Processes and Effects Committee noted the lack of a representative list of ecological characteristics that should be included in assessments of ecological condition, whether in the context of ecological risk assessments, watershed "health" assessments, environmental report cards, or any number of other Agency activities. The Framework provides a list of characteristics, organized as a nested hierarchy whose logic is derived from the fundamentals of pattern and process in ecological systems. The hierarchy allows users to judge tradeoffs when all attributes cannot be considered. It also provides a roadmap for organizing and collapsing numerous ecological indicators into a coherent, explainable picture.

KEY WORDS: science policy, ecological condition assessment, ecological risk assessment, environmental report card