Professionals who collect and use traditional knowledge to support resource management decisions often are preoccupied with concerns over how and if traditional knowledge should be integrated with science. To move beyond the integration dilemma, we treat traditional knowledge and science as distinct and complementary knowledge systems. We focus on applying traditional knowledge within the decision-making process. We present succinct examples of how the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has used traditional knowledge in decision making in the North Slope Borough, Alaska: 1) using traditional knowledge in designing, planning, and conducting scientific research; 2) applying information from both knowledge systems at the earliest opportunity in the process; 3) using traditional knowledge in environmental impacts assessment; 4) consulting with indigenous leaders at key decision points; and 5) applying traditional knowledge at a programmatic decision level. Clearly articulating, early in the process, how best to use traditional knowledge and science can allow for more complete and inclusive use of available and pertinent information.

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and a blue, white, and red titanium flag rests on the soil of an alien world. The explorers who planted it, tucked safely within the confines of their twin vehicles, are safe from a deadly temperature and pressure differential but miles from any other human contact. Moments later, both craft lift off and head skyward, mission accomplished, but the risks are far from over as they head upward, looking to dock with their mother ship.These were not outer-space vehicles landing on a world orbiting another star or even our own, but vehicles exploring Earth's inner space-the seafloor beneath the North Pole. The submersibles, Mir-I and Mir-II, and the explorers they protected, were the first ever to visit this hostile and unforgiving landscape. Having reached a depth of over 4,200 m, the submersibles made their way back to the surface to locate the break in the ice from which they started. Not finding this point of entry would have the same ramifications of being marooned on a far, distant world.This expedition was much more than an act of national pride and was not without precedent. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, this spectacular, and then controversial, journey was an attempt "to show that our shelf reaches to the North Pole.