ABSTRACT
Ecology is a synoptic scientific discipline seeking a comprehensive account of the systematic interdependencies of nature based upon scientific investigation and experimentation. Environmental law is a historically conditioned pragmatic discipline which in seeking to resolve concrete environmental problems. One way to understand the problems of relating systematic ecology to incremental legal decisionmaking is to examine a past effort to relate comprehensive science and law and policy making. Ecology has its roots in natural history and systematics and its early history is rich with studies of species distribution and community descriptions. This tradition endures and is central to the understanding of biodiversity. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was a driving force behind the application of ecology to environmental law and it hastened the birth of a new field, Conservation Biology. Conservation biology is not the only new field growing out of environmental protection efforts. Restoration ecology is another such field.
