Forest Service Employees Research Articles

From the office to the field: Areas of tension and consensus in the implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act within the US Forest Service

We conducted an online survey ( n = 3321) followed by five focus groups with Forest Service employees involved in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to explore agency views of how NEPA should be implemented within the agency. We filter these perceptions through the lenses of different functional groups within the agency, each with its own role in agency compliance with NEPA and its own suite of perceived accountabilities. In doing so, we uncover areas of consensus regarding valued practices as well as tensions between employees with different roles in NEPA compliance. General consensus exists regarding the importance of the effective functioning of interdisciplinary teams, but opinions about what constitutes an effective team vary. Findings suggest that NEPA serves as a playing field for competing accountabilities felt by line officers, disciplinary specialists, and advisory personnel within the agency, as each attempts to exert influence over NEPA processes and their outcomes.

The meaning of the National Environmental Policy Act within the U.S. Forest Service

We conducted a survey of 3321 Forest Service employees involved in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) followed by five focus groups to investigate agency views of the purpose of agency NEPA processes and their appropriate measures of success. Results suggest the lack of a unified critical task for Forest Service NEPA processes and that employees' functions relevant to NEPA influence their views of its meaning. Compared to other agency personnel, members of interdisciplinary teams who carry out most day-to-day NEPA-related tasks placed greater emphasis on minimizing negative environmental and social impacts, satisfying multiple stakeholders and avoiding litigation and appeals. Line officers, who typically serve as the decision makers following NEPA processes, placed greatest emphasis on efficient implementation and least emphasis on minimizing impacts. Advisory personnel placed greatest emphasis on effective disclosure of analyses and decision-making. We discuss the structural origins of these differences as well as their implications.

Growing Organizational Challenges for the US Forest Service: Results of a Longitudinal Study in a Period of Major Environmental Change

Abstract The US Forest Service has been widely viewed as the leader of the nation's forestry profession. Using longitudinal survey research, we have been measuring the extent of ongoing changes in the attitudes, beliefs, and preferences of agency employees on a wide range of resource management and organizational issues from 1990 to 2008. We have observed the agency transition from a timber-dominated organization to an agency struggling to cope with its posttimber reality. The performance gap in US Forest Service employees' perception of agency management activities—the difference between employee preferences and their perception of the position of the agency on key management issues—spawned an internal agency reform movement in 1989, but that gap has since narrowed. New organizational circumstances, including a reduced workforce, an exodus of employee technical expertise, declining resource budgets, reorganization initiatives, and the ascendancy of fire management have had major impacts on agency programs and employee morale.

Fostering Sustainable Operations in a Natural Resource Management Agency: Insights from the Field

Abstract Sustainable operations (SO; operating in an environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable manner) is consistent with the environmental stewardship mission of natural resource management organizations. This study sought to examine SO practices in the daily work lives of US Forest Service employees, including those primarily stationed in the office and in the field. The purpose was to identify influences on these behaviors such that organizations can more effectively promote them. We surveyed a random sample of employees within a region and research station of the US Forest Service (n = 451) regarding SO behaviors, barriers, and facilitators to SO, and perspectives on SO. Consistent with the Proenvironmental Behavior Change Model (Burn, S.M. and P.L. Winters. 2008, A behavioral intervention tool for recreation managers, Park Sci. 31[1]:5–15), social norms, attitudes, setting design, knowledge and information, and habit were all important influences on SO behaviors, with social norms, attitudes, and habits the strongest influences. Recommendations for promoting SO are provided.

The perceived scenic effects of clearcutting in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, USA

The scenic effects of clearcutting have been a volatile issue for the American public for much of the past century. A better understanding of the scenic perceptions associated with the cumulative visible effects of clearcutting should contribute to better decisions about its use. This study evaluates the scenic impacts of simulated alternative clearcutting management systems for the White Mountain National Forest. Alternatives represented an unharvested view, and views with removal of 1–5% of the timber every 12 years using either scattered or concentrated clearcut units of 5, 15 and 30 acres in two viewsheds. A random sample of local citizens, four groups of opinion leaders, and US Forest Service employees evaluated these alternatives. Each factor accounts for significant differences in scenic value. All groups rated the scenic value of unharvested scenes very high. All groups find a large drop in scenic value with the introduction of even the least intense harvesting activity. All groups indicated a statistically significant decrease in visual quality as the intensity of harvesting increases. This effect continues throughout the range of harvesting intensities until the level of sustainable yield is reached. In addition, patches 12–15 acres in size were preferred to larger and smaller ones.

Reflections from USDA Forest Service Employees on Institutional Constraints to Engaging and Serving Their Local Communities

Abstract Although community relationship building has been recognized since the early 1980s as integral to forest management, it has not been widely supported or adopted. Today, relationship building depends largely on the innovation and commitment of forest supervisors and staff. The institutional environment and its culture play an important role in building capacity for relationship building with communities at each unit, as well as supporting employees' attempts to serve local communities. The research presented takes an in-depth look at the institutional constraints to engaging and serving local communities from the perspectives of 20 USDA Forest Service personnel from three units. Research findings reveal agency, unit, and employee level constraints including, diminished resources, increased departmentalism, staff turnover, and long-distance commuting. We recommend that the Forest Service provides opportunities for successful relationship building efforts and assesses innovative techniques in a Community Partnerships Demonstration Project.

Gizmos and Gadgets from Missoula Technology and Development Center

USDA Forest Service's Missoula Technology and Development Center (MTDC) develops new equipment, produces training materials, conducts field evaluations, and initiates product searches for Forest Service employees and cooperators. Several recent projects of interest to nursery and reforestation employees include a shielded herbicide sprayer, an ATV-mounted native grass seeder, electric and plastic fences that exclude wildlife, a new seed scarifier, and an evaluation of reusable toweling for wrapping seedling roots. Here I provide details on these projects, including how to obtain additional information.

Gizmos and Gadgets from Missoula Technology and Development Center

Abstract USDA Forest Service’s Missoula Technology and Development Center (MTDC) develops new equipment, produces training materials, conducts field evaluations, and initiates product searches for Forest Service employees and cooperators. Several recent projects of interest to nursery and reforestation employees include a shielded herbicide sprayer, an ATV-mounted native grass seeder, electric and plastic fences that exclude wildlife, a new seed scarifier, and an evaluation of reusable toweling for wrapping seedling roots. Here I provide details on these projects, including how to obtain additional information.

Oregon Voices: Indian Views of the Stevens-Palmer Treaties Today

Oregon Voices Clark Hansen Indian Views of the Stevens-Palmer Treaties Today The starting point fordiscussion ofmany current issues in theCo lumbia River Basin is the treaty relationship between Indian tribes and the U.S. government, often established before the states were formed. The foundational treaties between theU.S. govern ment and the Indian nations of the lower Columbia Basin are the so-called Stevens-Palmer Treaties, negotiated in 1854-1855 on behalf of theUnited States by Isaac Stevens with tribes in Washington and by Joel Palmer with tribes inOregon. "The bad thing about history," Yakama leader Ted Strong says, "is that those who write it are those who are going to be believed, and Indians did not write theAmerican history as it is currently documented." Oral history collections can help to bring in the often underrepresented per spectives ofAmerican Indians. Excerpts from three oral histories ? one from a Yakama Nation leader and two from leaders of the Confederated Tribes of theUmatilla Nation ? offer some Indians' perspectives on the treaties and the issues they raise for the relationship between the tribes and theU.S. government. In 1999,Jeff Van Pelt participated in theCCRH project "Columbia Communities," which exploredthehistoriesof eightcommunitiesinthe Columbia River Basin since the building ofmajor dams on the river and itstributaries beginning in the1930s. One of thecommunitiesincluded ? 2005 Oregon Historical Society Hansen, Indian Views of the Treaties Today 475 National Archives,RGu, Ratified IndianTreaty#293 Firstsignature page ofthe Treaty with the Tribesof Middle Oregon,signed June 25,1855 was Umatilla, Oregon, a town on the river north west of the Confederated Tribes of theUmatilla Indian Reservation where Van Pelt grew up. In 2000, Ted Strong and Antone Minthorn participated in oral history interviews for "Managing theColumbia," a project conducted by theCenter forColumbia RiverHistory (CCRH) in conjunction with the Or egon Historical Society. This project's intent was to document the con temporary history of the Columbia River Basin. The oralhistoriesincludedthe voices ofmen and women who disagreed with the way the Columbia River system has been man aged and used at various times.More than sixtyoral histories were conducted with narrators frommany fields, agencies, and tribes, including snort and com mercial fishers, former U.S. Forest Service employees, formers, environ mentalists, university educators, business leaders, and Indians inOregon, Washington, and British Columbia. In all three oral histories included here, the narrators offered their views on the Stevens-Palmer treaties and their influence in the region today/ *The entire interview with Jeff Van Pelt and other interviews from the "Columbia Communities" project are available online at theCenter forColumbia River History Web site,www.ccrh.org/comm/ umatilla/oralarc.htm (accessed August 22, 2005). The full textof Ted Strong's and Antone Minthorn's oral histories are available at theCCRH offices at Portland State University and theResearch Library at theOregon Historical Society, Portland. 476 OHQ vol. 106, no. 3 Jeff Van Pelt On March 16,1999, oral historian Donna Sinclair interviewed Jeff Van Pelt, a descendant of the Cayuse, Pitt River, Siletz, and Umatilla Tribes and enrolled member of theConfederatedTribesof the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR). He served as Cultural Resource Protection Program Manager within the Department of Natural Resources of the CTUIR for many years and isnow a consultant. Donna Sinclair: Can you talk about the reserved treaty rights? What those mean to the tribes? Jeff Van Pelt: The treaty of 1855.To understand treaty rights is a very com plex issue. And I'm not an attorney, I'm not a judge, but I'm going to talk about how I personally think treaty rights are by what I've been taught. Treaty rights can't be interpreted by the treaty language or the articles they were written under. The Supreme Court in looking at treaty rights had a verydifficult time,so they developed guidingprinciplescalled thecanons of constructions, and the canons of construction, basically in a layman's kind of a summary as I understand it is, if Iwas going to contract with you, I'm aman. I'm stronger than you. You're awoman. You're physically weaker. So if Iwas going to go into an agreement with you, if Iwas to grab your arm and pull itbehind your back...

An Analysis of “24-Hour Pay” for Forest Fire Suppression Personnel

Abstract This study estimates the overall percentage difference in total personnel compensation between the current pay system for forest fire suppression and a system of 24-hour pay, where employees are paid their regular rate of pay for 24 hours per day while on fire duty. Using a random sample of USDA Forest Service employees, divided among fire types, pay grades, and job types, we simulated the effect of 24-hour pay by recalculating pay from actual pay records. We also investigated how changes in shift length (the number of hours worked in a 24-hour period) and hazard pay rates would affect compensation and how changing the pay system would affect different types of employees. Findings show that changing to a system of 24-hour pay would result in a substantial increase in salary costs. Restricting shift length to 12 or 14 hours further increases salary costs under 24-hour pay, as does the addition of hazard pay. In addition, increased employee compensation under 24-hour pay is unevenly distributed among job categories and pay grades. West. J. Appl. For. 17(4):183–188.

A Case Study in the Marketing of "Wolf-Friendly" Beef

This study examines an effort in New Mexico to establish a niche within the domestic beef market. The beef was marketed under environmental attributes with the slogan “Wolf-Friendly.” Two environmental groups, Defenders of Wildlife and Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, endorsed the management practices of the ranch producing the beef. A kick-off event for the “Wolf-Friendly” Beef was held at the Albuquerque Zoo at the onset of the market test. Two retail grocery stores and the zoo participated in a month-long market test. A survey was conducted at the zoo kick-off to determine participants' views on public land use, riparian protection, and predator preservation issues, and consumer willingness to pay for beef products that foster these environmental attributes. Sales and survey data from the market test were analyzed.

Testing Stewardship Concepts on Federal Land

Summary The goal of this paper is to describe recent attempts to define the stewardship concept and to translate it into action on the ground. The focus is on national forest lands and the unique challenges federal land managers face in working with the public to implement a concept that has different meanings to a variety of stakeholders. Stewardship requires more flexibility than is often found under existing administrative authorities. Large, bureaucratic agencies face many barriers in applying creative and innovative solutions to existing problems, not the least of which are internal and external reward structures. While there exist some authorities that allow for the creative testing of stewardship contracting projects on the ground, a number of challenges remain. Two significant ones are: (1) the need for a clearer, consistent understanding (by both Forest Service employees and constituents) of the authorities that can be used to test stewardship concepts; and (2) a more broad-based agreement on the desired outcome of stewardship projects. Given the current lack of understanding and agreement on how to implement stewardship concepts, the most effective means of moving the issue forward will be to apply innovative tests of contracting methods under current or new temporary authorities. These tests should be designed, implemented, monitored, and evaluated using broad-based, inclusive, on-the-ground coalitions that create effective ties and linkages between local and national levels.

Forest Service Spatial Information Use for Planning Prescribed Fires

Abstract Forest management decision support systems (FMDSS) and geographic information systems have improved the incorporation of spatial information into forest planning. However, most FMDSS have been designed to implement silvicultural treatments rather than prescribed fire and fuel treatments. Results from a survey of 277 Forest Service employees in the western US show FMDSS need modifications to be better adapted to the needs of prescribed fire planners. Survey responses indicate that, on average, prescribed fire planners would like to increase the area treated annually by 12 times current levels. Available time windows for burning provide the most severe constraint for managers, while funding and personnel constraints were rated as comparably less important. Given these results, FMDSS may be most appropriately designed to help managers develop a long-term strategy for prioritizing prescribed fire treatments. Necessary FMDSS modifications may include different methods of delineating treatment boundaries, improved integration with wildlife habitat models, emphasis on short-term costs, and flexible intervals between repeated treatments. West. J. Appl. For. 15(4):200–207.

The US Forest Service: Whither the new resource management paradigm?

The concept of a resource management paradigm was developed and operationalized in a nationwide study of US Forest Service employees in 1990. The results suggested that the attitudes and values of one particular segment of Forest Service employees, the Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, represent an alternative resource management paradigm that differs significantly from the dominant management paradigm held by the majority of US Forest Service employees. The study also found a significant segment of non-Association of Forest Service Employees for the Environmental Ethics employees eager to embrace non-consumptive forest policy changes. In 1996, the nationwide study of the US Forest Service was replicated to re-examine what changes had occurred. The results indicate that: (1) An alternative resource management paradigm continues to exist in the agency but that Association of Forest Service Employees for the Environmental Ethics' role as a catalyst has changed due to a potential decline in association membership, its perceived effectiveness among other agency employees, actual changes in agency resource management, and other more pressing external threats. (2) The agency has shifted more toward embracing the new resource management paradigm between 1990–1996, thus narrowing the perceived bureaucratic performance gap between employee preferences and resource management outcomes. (3) The production of commodities is viewed as more favorable in 1996 than in 1990, perhaps as a result of the shift in agency resource orientation toward ecosystem management and less production of forest goods. It is argued that the pendulum has swung too far toward non-commodities along a commodity/non-commodity continuum in the minds of forest service employees. We argue that this trend is part of an international phenomenon. Further, the kind of longitudinal and institutional analysis presented here could be applied to resource management agencies in national and provincial governments of other countries.

Sustaining the People's Lands -- Recommendations for Stewardship of the National Forests and Grasslands into the Next Century

Abstract In December 1997, Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman convened an interdisciplinary committee of 13 scientists to provide scientific and technical advice on the Forest Service's land and resource management planning process. The committee was asked to recommend how best to accomplish resource planning within the existing environmental laws and statutory mission of the Forest Service; to provide technical advice on planning and provide material for the agency to consider in revising planning regulations; to recommend improvements in coordination with other federal agencies, state and local government agencies, and tribal governments; and to suggest a new planning framework that could last a generation. The committee took field trips and met in cities and towns around the country to hear from Forest Service employees, representatives of tribes, state and local governments, related federal natural resource agencies, and members of the public. Drawing on many of the approaches and improvements to planning it observed, the committee has made its recommendations.

The New Question

Abstract In the eyes of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, the Forest Service has contravened the spirit of the National Forest Management Act by harping on the costs of environmental protection and biodiversity values. With its emphasis on ecological sustainability, the Committee of Scientists may at least change the issue, from the price of timber to the cost to our natural heritage.

Managing Public Forests: Understanding the Role of Collaborative Planning

/ As federal land management agencies such as the USDA Forest Service increasingly choose to implement collaborative methods of public participation, research is needed to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the technique, to identify barriers to effective implementation of collaborative processes, and to provide recommendations for increasing its effectiveness. This paper reports on the findings of two studies focused on the experiences of Forest Service employees and their external partners as they work to implement collaborative planning processes in national forest management. The studies show both similarities and differences between agency employees and their partners in terms of how they evaluate their collaborative experiences. The studies reveal that both Forest Service employees and external partners are supportive of collaborative planning and expect it to continue in the future, both see the trust and relationships built during the process as being its greatest benefit, and both see the Forest Service's organizational culture as the biggest barrier to effective collaborative efforts. The groups differed in terms of evaluating each other's motivation for participating in the process and in whether the process was a good use of time and resources, with external partners seeing it as too drawn out and expensive. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications and changes necessary to increase the effectiveness of collaborative efforts within the Forest Service and other federal land management agencies.KEY WORDS: Public land management; Collaborative planning; National forests; Public participation

Professional Foresters and the Land Ethic, Revisited

Abstract Using a nationwide survey of Forest Service employees, this article compares the land ethic of foresters with that of other natural resource professionals and examines the relationship between one's land ethic and preferred forest policy options. Professional foresters embrace a more utilitarian land ethic than that expressed by biologists and other natural resource scientists in the agency. Because the number of foresters, engineers, and range managers in the Forest Service is declining while the ranks of natural resources scientists are growing, changes in the short-term management of national forest units may be forthcoming.

Forest Service Budget Requests and Appropriations

In spite of recent arguments that significant changes are occurring in the United States Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, to date little empirical evidence exists demonstrating that this is indeed the case and whether these presumed changes are impacting upon substantive policy outcomes. Most of the current evidence available is from studies that have inferred change by measuring attitudinal change in Forest Service employees. None to date has examined changes in quantitative indicators of agency policy efforts or outcomes.In this article, we analyze trends in the budget requests of the Forest Service, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and appropriations made by Congress, to ascertain whether priorities of these actors concerning the commodity and non‐commodity programs of the National Forests have changed since the passage of the National Forest Management Act. The data reveal shifting priorities for the Forest Service, USDA, and OMB. However, although the shifts have been greater for the Forest Service than for the other two agencies, they have been significantly less than the shifts in congressional appropriations. This fact suggests that Congress is changing its view of how the Forest Service should manage its lands more quickly than the Forest Service is changing itself, and that, as some have argued, Congress has been an important external agent of change concerning the agency and its policies.

Ewert, Alan; Chavez, Deborah; and Magill, Art (Eds.). (1993).Culture, conflict, and communication in the wildland-urban interface

Ewert, Alan; Chavez, Deborah; and Magill, Art (Eds.). (1993). Culture, conflict, and communication in the wildland-urban interface. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, ISBN 0-8133-8440-0, $49.95 softcover, 410 pp.The conventional definition of the wildland-urban interface is an area where urban and wildland landscapes occur near or adjacent to each other (Bradley, 1984). In some situations, relatively large expanses of nature and urbanity are dichotomized and segregated with sharp lines of demarcation. This classic interface can be seen anywhere human development abuts designated park, forest, or otherwise natural area (Davis, 1990). Everywhere else, the location of the interface is more fuzzy. In these areas the interface is best thought of as an ecotone (Ewert, 1993), an area of transition between two socio-ecological communities. In the ecotone, land use patterns can vary from predominantly natural landscapes with scattered developments, as is common within the national forests, to urban areas with islands of nature protected in municipal parks and greenways. Thus, the interface can be as thin as boundary line or as wide as several hundred miles.The interface is also the point at which landscape changes are occurring most rapidly. While in few areas wildlands are being restored and reclaimed from industrial sites, farms, ranches, and other areas in which development has run its course, the story is usually one of steady, incremental, and relentless transformation of wild nature -- the humanization of the landscape.The interface is interesting to us as point of tension that says much about the human-nature relationship. Like the frontier, the interface sparkles as geographic symbol of what is good and bad about North American culture and the environment. It marks how far we have come and what we have sacrificed to get here. It also represents human constraint and the extent to which we are willing to limit growth for the sake of other values. The concept of the wildland-urban interface is rich and multifaceted. It has not, however, received much scholarly attention.Culture, conflict, and communication in the wildland-urban interface is collection of thirty essays by well-known scholars in the field of recreation and leisure. Other disciplines represented include rural sociology, social ecology, forestry, and natural resource policy. The overriding message that emerges is captured in an essay written by William R. Burch in which he asserts that the wildland-urban interface serves as a benchmark for how to live better with nature and ourselves.The editors, social scientists with the USDA Forest Service, have attempted to bring together original essays that explore variety of interface issues and problems. The choice of outdoor recreation and leisure scholars for most of the essays is indicative of the background of the editors.The book is divided into seven parts. Each part is introduced and summarized by the editors. Part I provides brief overview meant to lay the foundation for the ensuing essays. Part 2 explores the role cultural diversity and ethnicity play in the wildland-urban interface. Essays cover theory and research on the delivery of wildland recreation opportunities to culturally diverse populations, along with specific research on the leisure values and environmental attitudes of diverse groups. Part 3 includes discussions of the communication problems presented by language and cultural differences, along with strategies for effective cross-cultural communication, and recent advances in persuasion theory as applied to the interface. Part 4 explores the relationship of place, activity, participant characteristics, and social context. Part 5 covers topics such as multicultural responsiveness among land managing agencies, cultural foundations of environmental attitudes, perspectives of Forest Service employees towards cultural resources, and review of land ethic research with diverse groups. …