modelling

[Anita F. Cholewa]

Barry Roth replied ... Isn't one of the uses of models to help land-use planners and other agencies make decisions in the absence of actual field work in an area?

Yes and there is another danger in this approach.  Does anyone remember the incident in Oregon wherein a land manager planted lynx hair in an area where there was no scientific data to support lynx presence?  Perhaps his model said lynx should be in that area and so ... 

Sometimes we forget modelling is just a tool to help predict something ... it is not the same as scientific evidence.



________________________
Anita F. Cholewa, Ph.D.
Curator of Temperate Plants
Bell Museum of Natural History
University of Minnesota
1445 Gortner Ave
St Paul MN (USA)
http://www.cbs.umn.edu/herbarium/vascularplantpage.htm