Dr. Robert T. Lackey, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, presents the Plenary Keynote at the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference, April 30-May 2, 2014, Seattle, Washington. Four policy realities will define the future of the Salish Sea (Puget Sound north to Vancouver Island). These realities are intuitive, but some scientists and other technocrats avoid talking about them because they cast a “doom and gloom” shadow. Nor are they examples of irrational exuberance. Instead, they are blunt, objective appraisals of the future, perhaps troubling those concerned about the current ecological trajectory. However, any strategy targeted to change the current ecological direction of the Salish Sea must respond to these four realities, or that strategy will not succeed. It will be added to an already long list of prior, noble, earnest, but failed public policy programs. If Society genuinely wishes to change the current ecological trajectory of the Salish Sea, then most professional experts know that these four realities must change. As unappreciated as it may be, the public needs to hear this message from those who grasp the reality of the current policy situation.
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