Getting past the who and how many to the how and why in USDA Forest Service public involvement processes

The scope and intensity of public involvement in USDA Forest Service decision-making has been a historically contentious issue. Most research to date on the topic has been largely quantitative, and can overlook the details important to understanding those conflicts. This article presents qualitative, exploratory research conducted on the national forests in Virginia, USA designed to examine the behavior of public participants, the Forest Service, and the effects of the public participation process on project implementation. Implementation appeared affected to varying degrees by the attributes of forest management projects, the nature of the active public stakeholders, the timing of each participation stage, and a lack of procedural standardization. Future areas of research inquiry on a larger scale might be warranted in how the terms of forest management plans are translated to project actions; the nature of pre-decisional and post-decisional review of agency actions; project delays stemming from the participation process; and the effects of a lack of uniformity in participation processes at the forest-wide scale.