Eco-Watch Dialogues
May 1999

Major Social and Economic Trends and Trend-Breaks - Western USA
R4 Human Dimensions of Ecosystem Management Team

• Exploding urban populations -- Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Portland, Seattle...
• Exploding population in "discovered" recreation centers -- Aspen, Vail, Park City...
• Increasing ethnic diversity in urban centers and "discovered" recreation centers
• Continued financial hardship for many rural hamlets and counties
• Declining population in some rural hamlets and counties
• Increasing concern over air quality, water quality and water quantity
• Increasing concern over loss of open space (esp. in urban and semi-rural settings)
• Increasing costs of waste management (and increasing interest in recycling)
• Information-age footloose industry settling into certain parts of the West, both rural and metropolitan
• Increasingly transformed landscapes (cumulative effects of insect and fire regimes, mining, recreation development, grazing, logging, subdividing, etc.)
• Increasing corporate and private ownership of large blocks of private land (private lands more and more the domain of the wealthy, esp. large ranches and "discovered" rec. communities)
• Increasing subdivision of urban-forest fringe areas
• Widening gap between rich and poor (all US but particularly evident in the West)
• Large increases in prescribed fire (and associated smoke, hazard, etc.)
• Increasing biomass in some forest and rangeland types (and associated higher risks of fire, differing habitats, etc.)
• Continued and increasing conflicts over so-called "roadless" lands
• Continued and increasing loss of biological diversity
• Increasing pressures for use of all types (but particularly strong trends in recreational uses: hiking, biking, OHVs, sport-utility vehicle use, camping, picnicking, etc.)
• Increasing pressures for preservation and conservation
• Increasing feelings of "loss" associated with public and private lands
  • "fees" instead of "free"
  • "lost landscapes" & loss of relatively uncongested use of "special areas"
  • loss of favored species, and sometimes of biological diversity
  • lost access to special places
• Declining commodity use from traditional multiple-use management programs
• Uncertain commodity use from new-found ecosystem management efforts
• Continuing clashes between various government agencies, delegations, etc.
• Increasing emphasis in government on collaboration and partnerships
• Increasing numbers of so-called "community partnerships" (e.g. Quincy, Applegate...)
• Declining belief in government by "experts" and "professionals"