This symposium will identify challenges in, and opportunities for improving, environmental decision-making through governance, public participation, and translational approaches in ecology. This symposium will enhance dialogue between these three focal areas to identify shared goals and contribute to a more holistic understanding of the role of ecology in environmental decision-making. Effective environmental decision-making requires that researchers and practitioners more fully understand the complex linkages between society and the environment. Importantly, if the needs and constraints of stakeholders are not taken into account, environmental policies may cause unintended consequences. Integrating ecological understanding with diverse stakeholder perspectives requires collaborative multi-disciplinary teams and partnerships between ecologists, decision-makers, and stakeholders. However, effective and meaningful inclusion of stakeholders in environmental decision-making is a core challenge, which is often exacerbated by governing entities. For example, it is difficult to know if all stakeholders have been heard, and pre-existing governance structures between different stakeholders may impede identification of shared goals and improved outcomes. Symposium panelists will explore this core challenge of inclusion in environmental decision-making, drawing from the disciplines of ecology, law, public policy, and planning. Panelists will highlight the ways in which governance, public engagement, and translational approaches may improve environmental decision-making. Additionally, panelists will discuss synergistic approaches in environmental governance, public participation, and translational initiatives. With academic and practitioner perspectives, participants will identify shared goals across disciplines and areas for further collaboration in environmental decision-making. Topics to be covered include the role of law (Cosens) and non-profits (Mitchell) in environmental governance, methods for creating an inclusive environmental decision-making process (Schenk), links between social justice, resilience science, and community capacities (Arnold), building inclusive transdisciplinary partnerships (Schwarz and Tunning) and training the next generation of ecologists in translational ecology (Bakermans and Pfeifer). This symposium will build capacity among attendees for environmental decision-making by discussing both theoretical grounding and practical experiences in governance, public engagement, and translational partnerships. This symposium will foster cross-fertilization of diverse disciplinary perspectives, exploring best practices for bridging ecology and society to improve environmental decision-making.