"An ethic may be regarded as a mode of guidance for meeting ecological situations so new or intricate 'that the path of social expedience is not discernible to the average individual'. Ethics are a kind of community instinct in the making." Fifty years after Leopold penned those words, the human component of natural resource science is so new and intricate that the path of social expediency is indeed not discernible. One definable ethic is the mode of guidance for effectively meeting the social dimensions of natural resource decision-making of the future. By expanding the philosophy of Leopold's land ethic, the universal principles of being fair, open, and honest are what underlie the apparent success or failure of current public/natural resource interactions. Drawing on extensive public process experience, it is suggested that if natural resource professionals as a community embrace the fair, open, and honest philosophy as the cornerstone of public process, then Leopold's mode of guidance will have been defined for the coming century. (YDS)