40 years ago, an eminent limnologist decried the management of Tasmania’s water resources by the Hydro-Electric Commission and others. He offered a glimpse of optimism that environmental outcomes may change if water management agencies employed biologists.
40 years on, the challenges have changed, but the need for evidence-based decision making remains. Now, as then, decisions often need to be made before all the desired information is available. Clearly identifying the knowledge gaps allows novel techniques to be developed and flexible solutions to be implemented: biologists are critical to this.