However, it remains to be seen whether the report and operations at NBS in the next year will completely allay the concerns of critics. Before A Biological Survey for the Nation, the independent report by NRC's Committee on the Formation of the National Biological Survey, came out in late September, they questioned the wisdom of creating the survey (R. Kaufman, The Scientist, Sept. 20, 1993, page 3), saying it would not be an improvement over existing schemes.
The critics were primarily concerned that the reorganization would cause inefficiency and weakening of operations at the newly created NBS and existing DOI agencies, a decoupling of basic information from resource managers, and a possible de- emphasis on state and regional issues in favor of a more national agenda.
At least one observer, Arnett C. Mace, Jr., dean of the Daniel B. Warnell School of Forest Resources at the University of Georgia in ...