Ecosystem management: The U.S. forest service's response to social conflict

Abstract

The U.S. Forest Service has adopted ecosystem management, a concept mired in conceptual imprecision, as its new management direction. This article first argues that the agency's adoption of ecosystem management as a policy direction is an attempt by the agency to resolve a state of perpetual conflict that has resulted from its historical emphasis on timber production and neglect of issues relevant to a constituency not oriented to commodity production. Several propositions drawn from conflict theory illustrate the nature of this conflict between the agency and its constituencies. Second, this article contends that the agency's inability to respond to its changing constituencies is due in part to the formal educational process that emphasized the technical aspects of forestry management while neglecting issues of social choice.

Keywords:

• Keywords ecosystem management
• forest policy
• natural resource management
• social change
• social conflict
• U.S. Forest Service policy