Resource managers are increasingly asked to work at the ecosystem level of organization and to use team approaches to address management problems. Here we describe a senior/graduate level course that helps students to understand the complexity of an ecosystem, and to begin working with a resource agency. We have collaborated with the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (National Park Service) to find research problems that will help them manage the Lake Powell ecosystem. The Park Service receives useful research from the program, and they have partially underwritten the considerable cost of teaching the course. Projects undertaken have included studying the significance of the pelagic food web for endangered fishes, and the importance of production processes in the extensive side canyons of the reservoir.