National Assessment and Critiques of State-and-Transition Models: The Baby with the Bathwater

Abstract

On the Ground • Ecological site descriptions and state-and-transition models are national-level tools for organizing and delivering information about landscape dynamics and management. • Recent papers criticized state-and-transition models because they overemphasize grazing, are inconsistentlypresented, and do not address climate change. • I argue that the analysis of Twidwell et al. does not support an overemphasis on grazing, that inconsistent presentation is a necessary consequence of early model development efforts and immature science concepts, and that climate change effects should not be addressed in site-level models without evidence. • Improving these important tools requires fair critique, but also the strong commitment of scientists and funders.