Ecosystem management increasingly is viewed as a new “paradigm”; of public land management. The literature is becoming replete with studies of ecosystem management, including its implementation. Yet many of the studies are overly reliant on a technical and expert‐centered mode of implementation, as well as being somewhat uncritical about the value of ecosystem management. This policy review argues that much can be learned from the early days of the Progressive movement about how to bring about change in public land management. Specifically, early Progressives often were successful because they were able to link scientific management with key democratic values. This is the task that is facing ecosystem management advocates today as they confront a public interested, yet suspicious, of this evolving new land management regime.