Action: The President should issue a directive to establish ecosystem management policies across the government.21 "For too long, contradictory policies from feuding agencies have blocked progress, creating uncertainty, confusion, controversy, and pain throughout the region," President Clinton declared at the Forest Conference held in Portland, Oregon in April 1993. Shortly thereafter, the President announced his Forest Plan--a proactive approach to ensuring a sustainable economy and a sustainable environment through ecosystem management. We recommend extending the concept of ecosystem management across the federal government. Although economic growth has strained our ecological systems, our government lacks a coordinated approach to ecosystem management. A host of agencies have jurisdiction over individual pieces of our natural heritage. The Bureau of Land Management oversees more than 60 percent of all public lands; the Forest Service manages our national forests and grasslands; the Fish and Wildlife Service manages our National Wildlife Refuge System; the National Park Service oversees the national parks; the Environmental Protection Agency implements laws to regulate air and water quality; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) manages marine resources; and various other agencies run programs that affect the environment. Different agencies, with jurisdictions over the same ecosystem, do not work well together. Even within the same agency, bureaus fight one another. At the local level, a hodge podge of government agencies control activities that affect the environment. Consider, for instance, the San Francisco Bay delta estuary. One of the most human-altered estuaries on the west coast of North or South America, it is governed by a complex array of agencies, plans, and laws. One mile of the delta may be affected by decisions of more than 400 agencies.22 The White House Office on Environmental Policy has convened an interagency task force of appropriate assistant secretaries to develop and implement cross-agency ecosystem management projects. The Office of Management and Budget will review the plans as part of the fiscal 1995 budget process. In 1994, the assistant secretaries will establish cross-agency teams to develop initial ecosystem management plans for implementation in fiscal year 1995. Also in 1994, the President should issue a directive that will declare sustainable ecosystem management across the federal government.