Forest Service Response to Changing Public Value, Policies and Legislation during the Twentieth Century in the United States (original) (raw)
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Shifting Public Values for Forest Management: Making Sense of Wicked Problems
Western Journal of Applied Forestry
Wicked problems typify many of the natural resource debates in the United States and certainly describe the management of forestlands in the Pacific Northwest. Wicked problems are interrelated ones of organized complexity that cannot be solved in isolation from one another, but also hinge on differing sociopolitical values that clash in the political arena. Forestry professionals frequently find themselves caught up in the dilemma of making decisions in this era of social change and much scrutiny. This paper examines what shifting social values mean for forest management and research by (1) providing a conceptual context for forest policy decisions, (2) examining relevant problems facing management and research institutions, and (3) characterizing the implication for public forest management given the nature of wicked problems. West. J. Appl. For. 14(1):28-34.
Society & Natural Resources, 1997
Four broad categories of forest values are distinguished: economic/utilitarian, life support, aesthetic, and moral/spiritual. A computerized content analysis procedure was developed to identify expressions of these four forest values related to the national forests. With this procedure, changes in the forest value systems of three groupsforestry professionals, mainstream environmentalists, and the general public-were tracked over time. Forest value systems were found to have shifted over the study period, and significant differences were found between the forest value systems of the three groups. Implications of this study for ecosystem management are discussed.
The Once and Future Forest Service: Land-Management Policies and Politics in Contemporary America
Journal of Policy History, 2009
Th e news from the Far North is not good. In the spring of 2007, University of Alberta scientists reported that portions of the Canadian tundra were transforming into new forests of spruce and shrubs much more rapidly than once was imaginable. "Th e conventional thinking on treeline dynamics has been that advances are very slow because conditions are so harsh at these high latitudes and altitudes," reported Dr. Ryan Danby, a member of the UA research team. "But what our data indicate is that there was an upslope surge of trees in response to warmer temperatures. It's like [the forest] waited until conditions were just right, then it decided to get up and run, not just walk." 1 Th e multifaceted impact of global climate change is chilling. As tundra converts to forest cover, species and their habitats must move higher up or die off. Sheep and caribou are already responding to the environmental transformation that has aff ected members of Canada's First Nations, who are dependent on these food sources. Moreover, the process feeds off itself: trees absorb more light than tundra does and they emit that energy as heat, further warming the atmosphere and reinforcing the very conditions that allow more spruce to An earlier version of this essay was originally presented as the Lynn W. Day Distinguished
Views of old forestry and new among reference groups in the Pacific Northwest
Western Journal of Applied Forestry, 2002
A public opinion survey was conducted in Washington and Oregon. It was not a representative poll sample but instead sampled groups ofpeople favoring forest production, those favaring forest protection, and others not aligned with either of these viewpoints. There is strong consensus across groups regarding the unpopulari~y of established forestry methods and the need to regulate clearcutting. The weight of the sampled groups' opinions i&ated that replanting and hiding clearcuts are not enough to make them acceptable, that New Forestry should not be practiced in old growth, and that foresters should attend more to wildlife. There was no clear weight of opinion that forest harvests be eliminated or clearcutting be banned. There was passionate distrust of foresters among many protectionists and nonaligned respondents, but most of the same people support New Forestry intentions. New firestry oflers a potentially more politically acceptable and stable basis for public forestry practice and policy. West. J.
PUBLIC ACCEPTABILITY OF FOREST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AT MORGAN-MONROE STATE FOREST
Forest management practices on public forests are controversial with many organizational and individual stakeholders. Forest managers' understanding of the attitudes of stakeholders is necessary to honor statutory requirements and the social contract under which they operate. The human dimension component of the Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment (HEE) in Indiana included a study of recreationists' and neighboring landowners' forest management attitudes by examining the acceptability of alternative management practices on Morgan-Monroe State Forest (MMSF) before and after providing brief explanations of alternative management practices. An on-site survey of recreationists and a mail survey of landowners neighboring MMSF were used. Both surveys also included an investigation of the influence of information about timber management practices on respondents' attitudes.