Willingness to Pay Scenario Carbon sequestration and storage Water supply Biodiversity (habitat quality) Aesthetic viewsheds Proximity to open space Recreation Urban growth Loss Loss Loss Gain Gain Loss. Mesquite management Loss Gain Gain Water augmentation Gain. service valuation is useful only if it improves the ability to identify the tradeoffs between alternative management actions facing decisionmakers. From the outset of the project, Gila District and San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area managers and staff were involved with defining the direction of the analysis. Ecosystem Services Analyzed On the basis of stakeholder discussions at the project kickoff meeting held in Tucson, Ariz., in January 2010, broad categories of ecosystem services of interest were identified for the San Pedro River watershed. Participants sought to specify concrete economic benefits and beneficiaries relevant to these broad classes of ecosystem services, as described below for each broad group of services. Ecological "endpoints"-the Management issues Broad Specific Water Water quality. Water quantity. Surface and groundwater flows from Mexico: quality and quantity. Biodiversity Nonnative species. Threatened and endangered species recovery. Preserving biodiversity. Cultural Cultural site protection (for example, Murray Springs Clovis site). Rural character and lifestyle. American Indian treaty and trust responsibilities. International border Undocumented immigrants. Border safety. Recreation Managing recreational demand. Hunting and game management. Multiple-use demand. Ecological process management Soil conservation. Grassland preservation and erosion control. Forage and range provision. Wildfire management. Habitat connectivity and corridors. Growth and change Climate change. Urban growth.

In 1996 doctors at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center, which serves a primarily immigrant community, faced an ethical challenge. A number of Somali women insisted on circumcision not only for their sons, but also—reasonably enough, in Somali terms—for their daughters. The Somali mothers apparently recognized the cultural sensitivity of their request, for they were willing to have the hospital perform a purely symbolic procedure, merely nicking the skin sufficiently to draw blood, in contrast to a traditional sunna procedure which would remove at least part of the clitoris. The families made clear that if their request were refused, they would take other steps: resorting to one of several Somali midwives living in the Seattle area, or even flying their daughters back to Somalia for the procedure.

On storm-racked Cape Flattery, on Washington state's Olympic Peninsula, a drama of native hunting practices was played out in the spring of 1999 under the gaze of television cameras and furious protesters. The subject of the controversy: a plan by the Makah Tribe to revive the hunting of gray whales, pitting treaty rights against ‘animal rights’ amid growing disarray in the international policy system governing whaling. Such controversies are indicative of the new vigor with which communities are pursuing (and others are opposing) their perceived cultural rights.

Many of us might aspire to become "public intellectuals," standing side-by-side with Noam Chomsky (for those on the left) or Bill Bennett (for those on the right), using the national media to scourge the politicians, guide the journalists, and correct the wayward public. Unfortunately, few are willing to do the requisite heavy lifting, mastering the details of particular policy debates and cultivating contacts with the relevant players, as first steps on the road to this intellectual Valhalla. As the American Anthropological Association's Task Force on Public Policy commented in its January 1998 report: "Cultural ambivalence within AAA is demonstrated in anthropologists' failure to engage in public policy issues on the one hand, and, on the other hand, anthropologists' indignation at not being consulted on policy issues perceived as being related to anthropology."

The challenge of forging connections between anthropology and public policy is a lesson each generation must apparently relearn. The history of anthropology certainly offers good examples. But we also need to look to our contemporaries for models of successful practice. However impressive figures such as Franz Boas or Philleo Nash (Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, among other posts) may be, they faced different challenges and employed different strategies to reach their goals. As we stagger across that bridge to the twenty-first century, efforts to utilize anthropology in the policy domain appear far more challenging—both ethically and practically—than they did fifty or eighty years ago.