Drivers to integrate EM into the Forest Service
Problem Statement and Research Questions

Drivers to integrate EM into the Forest Service

A number of federal natural resource agencies have begun to integrate principles of ecosystem management (EM) into their organizational philosophy, policy, and structure. The United States Forest Service (USFS) is among the federal agencies that have demonstrated leadership in the shift toward ecosystem-based management practices. It has been nearly ten years since the agency began discussing ecosystem-based approaches to resource management, marked by a speech given by Forest Service Chief Dale Robertson first in 1990. The establishment of regional ecosystem offices, a natural resources agenda that emphasizes ecosystem concepts and de-emphasizes timber productivity, and dramatically reduced timber sale levels are just a few indicators that the USFS is embracing an ecosystem-based management paradigm at some levels.

Pressures to reform resource management practices have manifested both within and outside the agency over the past four decades. A multitude of factors - some identified below - led to Chief Robertson's announcement and the subsequent Forest Service efforts to institutionalize ideas of ecosystem management.

• Changing public values
• Advances in scientific understanding
• Resource management legislation
• Litigation
• Northwest Forest Plan
• Changing internal demographics
• Changing employee values
• An EM mandate from the USFS Chief

Since Chief Robertson's announcement, several examples demonstrate that the USFS has experienced a change in focus and structure. For example, the agency's new natural resources agenda includes a moratorium on road building, a focus on recreation, and a statement that water quality and quantity distribution are most critical issues of the decade. The agency has also developed a strategy for collaboration with state and private foresters, demonstrating the need to work across administrative boundaries in order to achieve ecosystem management objectives.

While the USFS has issued directives and policies based in ecosystem management ideas, it is not well understood to what extent the new philosophy has permeated the ranks of Forest Service employees and created change at the local level. Therefore, the research team would like to learn more about:

1. What ecological and process changes have occurred on the ground over the past decade?
2. What is driving what happens on the ground? What has been the effect of the EM mandate?
3. What factors have facilitated and/or impeded implementation of ecosystem-based management practices?