The U.S. forest service: Toward the new resource management paradigm?

Abstract

The attitudes and values of U.S. Forest Service employees toward resource management issues are examined by applying general concepts and empirical observations found in the literature on social change and resource sociology. The concept of a resource management paradigm is developed and operationalized in a nationwide study of Forest Service employees. Its results suggest that the attitudes and values of one particular segment of Forest Service employees, the Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (AFSEEE), represent an alternative resource management paradigm that differs significantly from the dominant management paradigm held by the majority of Forest Service employees. The emergence of this extraorganizational group of Forest Service employees dedicated to agency reform is unprecedented in the history of federal land management agencies; their characteristics, both sociodemographic and attitudinal, are compared and contrasted with those of non‐AFSEEE Forest Service employees. The potential role of AFSEEE as a change agent is discussed relative to other changes that are occurring concurrently in the Forest Service.