Owls Role Play Simulation

Framing a Joint Fact Finding Mission Statement in a Contested Ecosystem Management Situation

BACKGROUND

The construction of a network of new roads began five years ago across private and public lands in the Western U.S. The network cuts across large areas of forests and is meant to fulfill two main purposes. First, it is supposed to link several expanding towns. Second, it is going to allow selective cutting in forests that have not been thinned for decades and that, as a result, are experiencing more and more susceptibility to fire.

Years ago, the decision to expand the road network was welcomed by many. People believed that it would increase the local forest industry’s access to timber sources thereby fostering job creation and local development. At the same time, it would make nearby protected areas more accessible to recreational users for hiking, backpacking, and wildlife viewing. Finally, but just as importantly, it was believed that some thinning of the local forests would reduce the probability that a large wildfire would affect the area in the future. A local representative had made the completion of the road network an important element of his re-election campaign. Only a local conservation organization had voiced concern with the proposed plan, arguing that the expansion of the road network would fragment one of the last large and continuous tracts of forest in the area.

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