We develop a quantitative framework for understanding the class of wicked problems that emerge at the intersections of natural, social, and technological complex systems. Wicked problems reflect our incomplete understanding of interdependent global systems and the systemic risk they pose; such problems escape solutions because they are often ill-defined, and thus mis-identified and under-appreciated by communities of problem-solvers. While there are well-documented benefits to tackling boundary-crossing problems from various viewpoints, the integration of diverse approaches can nevertheless contribute confusion around the collective understanding of the core concepts and feasible solutions. We explore this paradox by analyzing the development of both scholarly (social) and topical (cognitive) communities — two facets of knowledge production studies here that contribute towards the evolution of knowledge in and around a problem, termed a knowledge trajectory — associated with three wicked problems: deforestation, invasive species, and wildlife trade. We posit that saturation in the dynamics of social and cognitive diversity growth is an indicator of reduced uncertainty in the evolution of the comprehensive knowledge trajectory emerging around each wicked problem. Informed by comprehensive bibliometric data capturing both social and cognitive dimensions of each problem domain, we thereby develop a framework that assesses the stability of knowledge trajectory dynamics as an indicator of wickedness associated with conceptual and solution uncertainty. As such, our results identify wildlife trade as a wicked problem that may be difficult to address given recent instability in its knowledge trajectory.

Yosemite National Park is a popular tourist destination with high visitation levels that have increased throughout the summer season over the past several decades. Like with other protected areas, high visitation levels pose challenges for coordinating resources, infrastructural capacity, and visitor experiences. Use limits, including rationing vehicle entry at gates by reservation, are one possible strategy to manage visitation levels. After an initial full closure, the park chose to operationalize a multiphased permit system for day-use and overnight entry over the course of the pandemic in accordance with local and national guidelines for operational safety. While park closures and other entry restrictions have been common in recent years due to wildland fires and other natural hazards, the pandemic-related entry limits represent a nearly yearlong experiment. The prolonged entry ration along with restrictions to group activities has limited visitation and potentially reduced transmission of the novel coronavirus. We review the per capita COVID-19 case count in surrounding counties given the flow of tourism from outside the region, assess the changes in access to the park with the novel reservation system, compare monthly visitation during the 2020 use limits with prior decadal averages, detail how high visitation levels and crowding persist, and review the Park’s plans for an ongoing day-use permit system. We conclude with the ongoing challenges managers face in light of continued high visitation. Readers will be able to debate the efficacy of use limits and what may be a sustainable level of visitation for the park.

The American West has seen a resurgence of capital investment in extractive mineral development on federal lands, emanating from the recent global financial crisis. For these extractive projects, as in energy development more broadly, struggles over knowledge persist in the pre-operational phases of exploratory access and environmental review when political-legal rights and scientific facts are coordinated, codified, and contested. Contested knowledge about extractive mineral development beyond the 100 th meridian, once more narrowly limited to proximate environmental impacts like water quality, now more broadly encompasses themes of scalar governance, landscape-level conservation, and local resource access. The case studies covered here demonstrate that a regional scale approach to political ecology provides utility as a heuristic to conceptually frame the concepts of governance, resource access, and ecological degradation between larger processes of economic restructuring and more localized micro politics. A case study approach is used to empirically support the claim that region provides a meso-scale of analysis in terms of: scalar resource control -state versus federal (southeast Utah); biocentric values -preserving nature for nature's sake (southern Arizona); and anthropocentric values -newly touted, but grounded in age-old utilitarianism (northeast Wyoming). Keywords: extractive industries, American West, federal lands, biocentric, anthropocentric Résumé L'Ouest américain a vu une résurgence d'investissements en capitaux dans l'extraction de minéraux sur les territoires fédéraux, émanant de la récente crise financière. Pour ces projets d'extraction, comme pour le développement de l'énergie de façon plus globale, les conflits liés à l'acquisition de savoir persistent dans les phases pré-opérationnelles d'accès exploratoire et d'analyse environnementale quand les droits politicojuridiques et faits scientifiques sont coordonnés, codifiés et contestés. Les informations contestées concernant le développement d'extraction de minéraux au delà du 100 ème méridien, auparavant plus limitées à des impacts environnementaux directs comme la qualité de l'eau, englobent maintenant des thèmes plus larges comme la gouvernance multi-scalaire, la conservation et la gestion à l'échelle du paysage et l'accès aux ressources. Les études de cas présentées ici démontrent qu'une approche à l'échelle régionale de l'écologie politique apporte une utilité heuristique pour formuler conceptuellement les principes de gouvernance, d'accès aux ressources, et de dégradation écologique entre les processus plus larges de restructuration économique, et ceux plus localisés de micro-politique. La méthode de l'étude de cas est utilisée pour soutenir empiriquement l'affirmation soutenant que la région permet une analyse à échelle méso en termes de: contrôle de ressources scalaires -Etat v. Etat fédéral (Utah du sud-est); valeurs biocentriques -préserver la nature pour elle-même (Arizona du Sud) ; et des valeurs anthropocentriques -récemmen...

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