| The biodiversity crisis facing the world today is the result of habitat destruction. Alleviating the crisis requires a deliberate approach to conservation planning based explicitly on maximizing species protection while also recognizing the needs of society. Goals for healthy social and ecological systems need not be mutually exclusive. However, industry supported political power structures benefit from the portrayal of ecological objectives as contrary to prosperous communities. A political ecology case study approach is used to evaluate the dynamics between social, ecological, and political systems in the management of two national forests in Idaho.; The research begins with a detailed conservation assessment of Idaho that highlights high quality, diverse, and under-represented habitats and aquatic systems across the state. Existing reserves in Idaho follow the national trend towards protection of scenery and high elevation areas with little or no commodity values while many of the most productive and biologically diverse sites have gone unprotected. Forest management practices on the Boise and Clearwater National Forests, when evaluated against the findings of the conservation assessment, show an ongoing emphasis for commodity production at the expense of important habitat areas for species diversity. Community stability is frequently sited as the justification for continued resource exploitation.; A socio-economic analysis of the surrounding counties shows that both regions are transitioning from 'Old West' to 'New West' economies. However, there is considerable variability in transitional stages between and within the two study areas. Growth in the Boise metropolitan area has driven the transition in southwest Idaho while rural counties and communities surrounding the Clearwater have remained isolated and been slower to diversify demographically and economically. This has created the opportunity for political powers to polarize conservation and community interests while promoting a commodity driven agenda. |
