Public involvement in resource planning: Toward bridging the gap between policy and implementation

Abstract Virtually every major congressional act passed since 1946 mandates citizen participation in government administrative policymaking. Nevertheless, the public involvement goals contained in resource planning legislation are often not met in practice. The article presents an evaluation of the public involvement methods used in U. S. Forest Service land management planning. The results suggest that some of the public involvement goals contained in the National Forest Management Act of 1976 were not met for most forests. The barriers to providing effective public involvement were (1) the complex, technical planning process adopted by the agency; (2) a lack of agency guidance on conducting interactive public involvement; (3) a desire to avoid controversy; and (4) internal power struggles that affected the planning process. To meet the public involvement goals of planning legislation, agencies should clearly identify and address controversial public issues; conduct substantive, interactive public involvement during the development of planning alternatives; and coordinate public involvement and social impact assessment functions so that the interests of all parties are represented during the planning process.