Who cares about wooded hillsides?

Many of the often touted values of wetlands are highly speculative and highly site specific, as are the values listed for wooded hillsides. Many economists and most ecologists have lost sight of the fact that environmental (economic) concerns share a common characteristic in that they are interrelated and should not be analyzed in isolation. Economists are guilty of catering to ecologists in order to be at the forefront of the environmental bandwagon, instead of steering that bandwagon down a more appropriate, although less popular, path. Ecologists are guilty of confusing ecological function with social value. There are individual examples of ecosystems that should be preserved, but not whole classes. Some have already begun to recognize that the call for complete assessment of other landscapes may not be far off. In fact, the US Environmental Protection Agency's Region X in Seattle has issued a policy statement on management of riparian lands using the familiar rhetoric about functions and values.