Biological Resource Management in a Changing World: Capacity for Local Community Participation in Wildlife Management Planning for National Parks

Leong, Kirsten

National parks have been called America’s best idea, and the U.S. National Park Service serves as a model for protected area management in many other nations. As the National Park system approaches the 100-year mark, this model needs to be examined with respect to the changing societal and land-use interface between parks and surrounding communities. Analyzing the role of parks in a landscape experiencing such large-scale changes requires park professionals to understand the human dimensions of natural resource management and evaluate public participation policies and practices. This study addressed capacity for local community participation in biological resource management decisions on federal reserves by focusing on the issue of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) management in National Park Service units across the northeastern U.S. Based on interviews with National Park Service managers, a public issues education model was refined for application to wildlife issues in National Parks. A typology of philosophical approaches to public participation was expanded to capture a new category then examined with respect to conceptions of community, revealing shifts in paradigms for conceptualizing both communities and public participation at a community level. Interviews with public participation practitioners surfaced additional insight about approaches within the different paradigms. Extensive interviews with residents of communities near parks revealed deer issues to be “wicked” or “messy” problems, indicating the need for clear problem framing when park managers engage in dialogue with stakeholders. A feedback loop was identified between the reactions of people to deer and vice versa that can lead to a “tragedy of becoming common” whereby a wildlife species that is initially highly valued becomes regarded as a pest. Finally, the communication concept of coorientation was expanded from a measurement tool to a theoretical foundation for choosing among various formats for participatory processes. A quantitative method for assessing coorientation contexts was developed for use with small groups of decision makers and large groups of publics. Collectively, this set of papers assists natural resource managers in conceptualizing and implementing robust public participation efforts to address complex and controversial biological resource management issues in a changing world.

Biological Resource Management in a Changing World: Capacity for Local Community Participation in Wildlife Management Planning for National Parks

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