Local perceptions of public lands natural resource management in the rural west: Toward improved understanding of the “revolt in the west”

Abstract

During the 1990s federal land and resource management agencies have experienced increasingly contentious relationships with many rural‐area publics. Controversies over agency efforts to manage traditional resource uses such as grazing and mining and to protect environmentally sensitive areas have provided an impetus for organized efforts to reduce federal control over public lands resources. The emergence of the “Wise Use,” “country supremacy,” and “home rule” movements reflects a broadening social conflict over public lands management and growing demand for increased local control over resource management decisions. However, at present little information is available regarding the extent to which such concerns are widely shared among the West's rural‐area residents, or how such views may vary across community contexts and types of residents. This article attempts to answer such questions through an analysis of survey data drawn from six rural‐area communities in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. Representative samples of adult residents were presented with questions pertaining to their views about public land management and their levels of trust in various resource management agencies. Community context factors as well as selected respondent sociodemographic characteristics are examined as variables that may help to explain variation in perceptions of public lands resource management.