Making the Most of Science in the West:

An Experiment

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In Spring 2002, Patricia Nelson Limerick led a two-day workshop in Estes Park, Colorado on the history of science in the American West. The event was co-sponsored by the Center of the American West, the National Park Service and Rocky Mountain National Park, and the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History.

For the better part of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Westerners have held to the long-running dream that scientists will rescue us from our quarrels over regional environmental concerns. According to this dream, scientists would not only help us identify potential and real environmental problems, they would provide us with clear, useful, and objective information that would steer our environmental policies. Scientists, the dream holds, are rational, disinterested beings whose inner lives and personal convictions have no impact on their scientific findings. Yet, Westerners have made a habit of pulling scientists into our squabbles over the environment. And, when scientists show themselves to be human, we question the validity of their data and conclusions.

So, what has happened to that long-running dream?

On August 1, 2003 the Center of the American West released its report, Making the Most of Science in the American West. In the report, we look at the key role that scientists have played in the West and in the shaping of natural resource policies that govern so much of the Western landscape. We asked Westerners to retain their faith in science, but to remodel the dream to make the most of our spectacular talent pool of scientists in universities, federal agencies, and non-governmental organizations throughout the West.

We are interested in your feedback on this report. Please send your comments to info@centerwest.org