Changing Social and Legal Forces Affecting the Management of National Forests

Abstract

The U.S.D.A. Forest Service has been cited as one of the best managed agencies in the government. The Forest Service gained national respect during the Great Depression and emerged from World War II expanding its mission from primarily custodial management to supplier of natural resource commodities such as timber. Its budget grew and so did its numbers of employees (Reich 1962: Sabatier, Loomis, and McCarthy 1995). It was also a professional monoculture largely made up of white male foresters, and was soon to encounter strong sociopolitical pressures to accommodate environmental values and more open, democratic decision making.

Citation

Apple, Daina Dravnieks. 1996. Changing Social and Legal Forces Affecting the Management of National Forests. Women in Natural Resources, Volume 18, No. 1. 8p.