Building Partnerships For Ecosystem Management On Forest And Range Lands In Mixed Ownership

Proceedings of the Conference on Integrating Social Sciences & Ecosystem Management held in 1995. The overall purpose was to improve understanding, integration, & research applications of the human dimension of ecosystem management. The goals were to: (1) discuss the state of knowledge of social sciences relevant to ecosystem management, (2) discuss how to integrate this knowledge with ecosystem management (along with the physical & biological sciences), (3) develop a strategy to effectively integrate social sciences with ecosystem management, & (4) identify a research agenda to further knowledge in the area. Illustrated.

The Forest Service (FS) has spent 20+ years and over $250 million developing multi-year plans for managing national forests. This report discusses the internal and external causes of inefficiency and ineffectiveness in the FS's decision-making process: the inadequate attention that the FS has given to improving the process; the lack of agreement, both inside and outside the agency, on how it is to resolve the conflicts among competing uses on its lands; unresolved interagency issues that transcend its administrative boundaries and jurisdiction; and differences in the requirements of laws that help frame its decision-making. Charts and tables.