Lost In the Forest: Seeking the Narrative Networks, Echo-Chambers, and Boundaries of Science In the Institution of Public Resource Management In Oregon and Texas

Abstract

Changing social and ecological environments create as many challenges as they do opportunities in managing our limited natural resources. In the face of growing environmental and administrative complexity, experts must engage in information economics to satisfy their knowledge needs. This dissertation asks do natural resource managers use scientific information? And, if so, how do they obtain it? My first chapter evaluates science and forestry policy by following the clear-cutting debate throughout the Pacific Northwest Timber wars from 1975—2004. Drawing on information processing theory as a theoretical frame, I look for the influence of new stakeholders to the forestry arena in challenging the historic decision-making deference. Archival media narrative offers a nuanced perspective of what led to the changes that shook the U.S. Forest Service and logging industry as sole proprietors of public forest resources. I find that science was just one weapon in the arsenal of the public interested in systems other than the timber industry. My second chapter evaluates the barriers to usable science uptake in state forest management in Oregon. Based off exploratory interviews on information-seeking behavior, this chapter illustrates a state’s challenges in sufficing diverse public values while updating forest management plans. In-depth interviews and a citation analysis supports the impact of a local-agenda and the constraints it places on the state agency to incorporate relevant and up-to-date information. My third chapter explores the intersection of information-seeking behavior and a public agency’s capacity to span boundaries in natural resource management. Where the information-seeking literature suggests that humans interact within our own echo-chambers, boundary-organization literature points to characteristics that encourage the transfer of relevant and usable information, particularly in public agencies. From a survey of three publicly funded natural resource agencies in Texas, I find that experts prefer to seek information from within their organization, similar organizations, the Internet, and locals who have resided in their area for a long time more frequently than from other sources. Results point to education having an impact on information-selection behavior.