A framework for enhancing public participation in United States Forest Service social impact analysis

Social impact analysis (SIA) is a specific process institutionalized by the USDA Forest Service to meet the requirements for analyzing effects found in the National Environmental Policy Act, the Resources Planning Act, and the National Forest Management Act. SIA practitioners approach their work from two general perspectives: a technocratic-research approach and a participatory-planning approach. The key assumption of the technocratic-research approach is that given significant data, specialists can make predictions about the future using established projection techniques. The key assumptions of the participatory-planning approach include the idea that SIA is a logical part of the decision process, that valid and useful data can come from anywhere, and that decisions about environmental and social impacts should be jointly arrived at by agency officials and the people affected by the project or plan. The Forest Service has most closely followed the technocratic-research approach. Two of the challenges facing those conducting SIA are identifying social impact categories to use in analyzing potential impacts from a management decision, and involving the public in the SIA process. Research conducted in conjunction with the Wisconsin National Forests Socioeconomic Roundtable suggests that there are ways to address these two challenges and to move the Forest Service away from the technocratic-research approach and toward the participatory-planning approach to SIA. Recommendations include using a delphi survey technique and focus groups to (1) identify impact categories for SIA, and (2) anticipate potential impacts of management actions.