Modeling Without End: Conflict Across Organizational and Disciplinary Boundaries in Habitat Conservation Planning

This chapter analyzes a case in which modeling becomes “too real” for participating scientists, to the point that modeling goes on, it seems, without end. It describes the history of conservation planning in the Valley, leading into the multiple-species habitat conservation plan (MSHCP) planning effort. The chapter aims to interrupt that historical narrative to present two scenes from a scientific advisory committee (SAC) meeting convened to identify lizard habitat that should be included in the multiple species plan. It examines the planning history, describing the fate of this effort to contain disagreement, of the SAC as an organizational entity, and of the MSHCP itself. The chapter identifies aspects of model construction and negotiation that cross organizational boundaries and may be particularly relevant for cognitive studies of educational practice. It looks at conversational exchanges between scientists, land managers, and plan consultants in a meeting called to review additions/deletions to an existing model of occupiable habitat for an endangered lizard species.