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In the late 1950*5, when this writer first plunged into Hawaiian wildlife management, life was so simple. "Ecosystems" were discussed mostly by professors of biology at the University of Hawaii. Occasionally, a visiting scientist would pursue his specialty in our forests and prepare a paper on the importance of protecting the "unique Hawaiian biota." Few listened. Government agencies were primarily concerned with watershed protection to assure irrigation for agriculture, and with promoting commercial forestry, developing large State parks, and preventing the extinction of large, obvious endangered species (the nene). Citizen perception of natural resource management was that it should lead to consumption or use. Zoologists, botanists, malacologists, entomologists, and wildlife biologists, for the most part, were seen as oddball specialists with selfish professional motives. Today, the word "ecology" is on the lips of average citizens, reporters, transients, and politicians. (In the 1960 f s, a local Honolulu candidate for office paraded a sign by the side of the road touting his primary qualification as an "ecologist".) Specialists in the fields of mammalogy, water resources, arachnidology, ornithology, and terrestrial ecosystems now abound in our institutions. Environmental protection as a concept permeates our Constitution, statutes, ordinances, rules, regulations, and policies. Citizen societies for the preservation of the treasures of nature have proliferated, and their representatives crowd the legislative hearing rooms. Natural scientists are honored by appointment to advisory boards and are inundated with Environmental Impact Statements to review. Things have become very complex.