Lee K. Cerveny

The role of discretion in recreation decision-making by resource professionals in the USDA Forest Service

This paper explores opportunities for administrative discretion in decision-making for natural resource management. We carried out an exploratory study in the USDA Forest Service to understand factors affecting administrative actions related to recreation use in riparian areas. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 resource professionals from a national forest in the northwest region of the United States. Questions focused on professional judgments about recreation in riparian areas, administrative actions related to management of these activities, and the potential for personal values to influence decisions. We analyzed the transcribed interviews using Atlas.ti, coding the data for salient themes. In this paper, we discuss perceptions of resource professionals about the potential for personal values to influence administrative actions and decisions. We highlight four distinct realms in the planning process where expanded discretionary capacity exists and values may emerge. Finally, we suggest ways to reduce the potential influence of value-based judgments in decision-making.

The Use of Recreation Planning Tools in U.S. Forest Service NEPA Assessments

U.S. Forest Service managers are required to incorporate social and biophysical science information in planning and environmental analysis. The use of science is mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Forest Management Act, and U.S. Forest Service planning rules. Despite the agency’s emphasis on ‘science-based’ decision-making, little is known about how science is actually used in recreation planning and management. This study investigated the perceptions of Forest Service interdisciplinary (ID) team leaders for 106 NEPA projects dealing with recreation and travel management between 2005 and 2008. Our survey data show how managers rate the importance of social and biophysical science compared to other potential ‘success factors’ in NEPA assessments. We also explore how team leaders value and use multi-disciplinary tools for recreation-related assessments. Results suggest that managers employ a variety of recreation planning tools in NEPA projects, but there appears to be no common understanding or approach for how or when these tools are incorporated. The Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS) was the most frequently used planning tool, but the Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP) framework was the most consistently valued tool by those who used it. We recommend further evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of each planning tool and future development of procedures to select appropriate planning tools for use in recreation-related NEPA assessments.

Natural Resource Agencies and Their Motivations to Partner: The Public Lands Partnership Model

Public land management agencies, such as the USDA Forest Service (USFS), utilize partnerships to accomplish a variety of tasks and meet specific targets. However, public agency personnel invest considerable time and energy to develop and maintain partnerships. Research on partnering motivations typically focuses on volunteers, nonprofit organizations and corporations, leaving the motivations of public agency personnel relatively unknown. This paper presents findings from a multiple partnership case study design on six national forests. The Public Lands Partnership Model (PLPM) is presented as a conceptualization of 13 motivations, classified into 3 distinct motivation types (i.e., interpersonal, intrapersonal, and institutional), that influence the propensity of agency personnel to partner. Additional influences, such as national forests’ external environment and internal commitment, need further exploration to confirm the PLPM and generalize results to the USFS and other agencies engaged in public land management partnerships.

Agency capacity for recreation science and management: the case of the U.S. Forest Service.

Cerveny, Lee K.; Ryan, Clare M. 2008. Agency capacity for recreation science and management: the case of the U.S. Forest Service. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNWGTR-757. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 78 p. This report examines the capacity of natural resource agencies to generate scientific knowledge and information for use by resource managers in planning and decisionmaking. This exploratory study focused on recreation in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. A semistructured, open-ended interview guide elicited insights from 58 managers and 28 researchers about recreation issues, information exchange, and research-management interactions. Data were coded and analyzed using Atlas.ti®, a qualitative analysis software program. Results indicate that recreation managers seek information to address user conflicts and manage diverse activities across sites and landscapes. Managers do not always turn to the research community when looking for scientific information and are uncertain about the proper channels for communication. Managers consult a variety of information sources and aggregate various types of scientific information for use in planning and management. Managers desire greater and more diverse interactions with researchers to promote knowledge exchange useful for addressing recreation problems. Barriers to interaction include organizational differences between management and research, researcher responsiveness, relevance of information to manager needs, and the lack of formal interaction opportunities. Several structural processes were suggested to facilitate opportunities for greater interaction and information exchange.

Comparison of USDA Forest Service and Stakeholder Motivations and Experiences in Collaborative Federal Forest Governance in the Western United States

In the United States, over 191 million acres of land is managed by the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, a federal government agency. In several western U.S. states, organized collaborative groups have become a de facto governance approach to providing sustained input on management decisions on much public land. This is most extensive in Oregon, where at least 25 “forest collaboratives” currently exist. This affords excellent opportunities for studies of many common themes in collaborative governance, including trust, shared values, and perceptions of success. We undertook a statewide survey of participants in Oregon forest collaboratives to examine differences in motivations, perceptions of success, and satisfaction among Forest Service participants (“agency participants”), who made up 31% of the sample, and other respondents (“non-agency”) who represent nonfederal agencies, interest groups, citizens, and non-governmental groups. We found that agency participants differed from non-agency participants. They typically had higher annual incomes, and were primarily motivated to participate to build trust. However, a majority of all respondents were similar in not indicating any other social or economic motivations as their primary reason for collaborating. A majority also reported satisfaction with their collaborative—despite not ranking collaborative performance on a number of specific potential outcomes highly. Together, this suggests that collaboration in Oregon is currently perceived as successful despite not achieving many specific outcomes. Yet there were significant differences in socioeconomic status and motivation that could affect the ability of agency and nonagency participants to develop and achieve mutually-desired goals.

Mapping meaningful places on Washington's Olympic Peninsula: Toward a deeper understanding of landscape values

Landscape values mapping has been widely employed as a form of public participation GIS (PPGIS) in natural resource planning and decision-making to capture the complex array of values, uses, and interactions between people and landscapes. A landscape values typology has been commonly employed in the mapping of social and environmental values in a variety of management settings and scales. We explore how people attribute meanings and assign values to special places on the Olympic Peninsula (Washington, USA) using both a landscape values typology and qualitative responses about residents’ place-relationships. Using geographically referenced social values data collected in community meetings (n = 169), we identify high-frequency landscape values and examine how well the landscape values are reflected in open-ended descriptions of place-relations. We also explore the various interpretations of 14 landscape values used in the study. In particular, we investigate any overlapping meanings or blurriness among landscape values and reveal potentially emergent landscape values from the qualitative data. The results provide insights on the use of landscape values mapping typologies for practitioners and researchers engaged in the mapping of social values for PPGIS.

Science Exchange in an Era of Diminished Capacity: Recreation Management in the U.S.. Forest Service

Promotion of effective science exchange between government scientists and managers requires thoughtful arrangement and operation of research and management functions. The U.S. Forest Service was established at the peak of the Progressive Era, when science exchange was designed to occur between researchers and resource managers who worked in distinct arms of the agency, but shared similar goals of effective forest management. In this article, the authors explore the implications of diminished agency capacity for science exchange interactions between researchers and managers in recreation management. Managers and researchers identified their current interactions, their perceptions of ideal interactions, and barriers to achieving those ideals. Reductions in agency capacity for recreation management have resulted in the erosion of interactions between managers and researchers. However, effective science exchange does occur, but requires innovative and adaptive approaches.

Multiple methods of public engagement: Disaggregating socio-spatial data for environmental planning in western Washington, USA

• The effectiveness of participatory GIS approaches at engaging different publics was explored.

Politics of Landscape Transformation in Exurban King County, Washington

Urban areas in the western United States have experienced significant population growth in outlying communities, particularly those close to natural and rural amenities. A comparative case study of three exurban communities in King County (Seattle), Washington allows close examination of the complex dynamics and competing interests that shape the physical and social landscapes of exurbia. Working lands once held by corporations are being sold or redefined for residential development. Developers navigate complex land use and urban containment policies and negotiate with local officials to create new communities within or adjacent to historic settlements. The dynamics of these shifting landscapes from productivist to post-productivist regimes have underlying causal mechanisms that come into focus when viewed through a political ecology lens. This chapter explores the interests and negotiated approaches of various actors (local governments, developers, real estate professionals, and residents) in southeastern King County who are involved in creating exurban landscapes. We focus on three neighboring exurbs (Maple Valley, Black Diamond, and Ravensdale) each located 25 miles from Seattle along the state highway 169. While these communities exist within the same geo-physical landscape and share a common economic history, the development choices are vastly distinct. While designed to bring the consumer closer to nature and rural life, these exurban developments have transformed rural areas into manufactured exurbs that bring the city closer to the rural and confound previous definitions of exurbia.

Social Science Research at Experimental Forests and Ranges

For a century, US Department of Agriculture Forest Service experimental forests and ranges (EFRs) have served as a resource for scientists conducting long-term research relating to forestry and range management and ecosystem science. Social science research has not comprised a significant portion of the research endeavor at EFRs to date, despite their past history of occupation and their current human uses. The EFR network presents a rich, though largely untapped opportunity for social scientists to engage in long-term, comparative, and interdisciplinary research related to human-natural resources interactions. This chapter explores the potential for social science research at EFRs. We synthesize the human dimensions research that has been pursued there to date by social scientists and others. This research falls into six areas: human uses, prehistorical and historical studies, economics, human dynamics at the wildland–urban interface, human values relating to forests, rangelands, and their management, and interdisciplinary studies of socio-ecological systems. Discussions with EFR scientists and site administrators revealed the potential for several types of future social science research. However, lack of awareness, limited budgets and networking, and the historic predominance of biophysical scientists who administer and conduct research at EFRs appear to have inhibited the development of social science research there. Nevertheless, we see signs that it is on the rise, and expect it to increase in the future. We suggest ways of encouraging social science research at EFRs, and describe its potential contributions.