To make informed regulatory decisions it is necessary to understand differences between ecological and environmental data. Analyses of environmental data historically use models developed by numerical ecologists for ecological data collected by academic and research agency scientists. These numeric and statistic models require well-structured data collected to fit assumptions and requirements of the models. This works for researchers who identify a question to be answered and work forward from that to determine when, where, and how much data need collecting to answer that question. The research approach of fitting data to models has leaked into the analyses of environmental data gathered in response to statutory and regulatory requirements. Most often, the results are misleading or incorrect. Regulatory decisions based on these results are ineffective at best or economically and socially harmful at worst.