What is a Mancos Landscape? A Mancos landscape, such as seen in this vista of the Grand Valley, is made up of many elements—the cliffs, the Colorado River and its tributaries, the plants, farms, towns, various animals, highways, soils, and even the underlying rocks. Each of these elements can be considered a separate landscape—a geomorphologic, hydrologic, geologic, biologic, or botanic landscape, and so on. These seemingly disparate landscapes are linked together by a variety of processes that operate to form the complex landscape on which we live. This draft science plan summary is primarily concerned with the landscape that is underlain by the Mancos Shale, which forms most of the Book Cliffs and underlies most of the Grand Valley. Many of the proposed activities are the outgrowth and continuation of a BLM-USGS cooperative project, Developing Coordinated Science Activities in Support of Land Management in the Mancos Shale Badlands of the Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area. The basis for the draft science plan was developed during the Mancos Landscapes: Science and Management Workshop in Grand Junction, Colorado. The summary includes a problem statement, and information on objectives, relevance and impact, and strategy and approach.