Seth Harju recently presented at a state Wildlife Society meeting about the role that data can play in resolving conflicts over wildlife issues.  In particular, objective information like data and GIS scenarios can resolve uncertainty around the outcomes of management actions.  Parties that have ‘dug their heels in’ are often willing to move forward once they see objective information on how their interests will be impacted, heading towards resolution of the conflict.  He suggested that while the gold standard of designing new studies to collect data should be the first consideration, leveraging existing data (often buried in the literature) or conducting GIS scenario building are useful alternatives to bring data to bear on wildlife issues.