Social Science Research
in
Forest Service Research & Development

Community Research:
Community research is conducted by social scientists with specialties in rural and urban sociology, environmental and social psychology, human geography, and political science. This research provides knowledge about human relationships, demographic changes, and social forces and institutions that influence natural resource protection and management. Community research may be conducted at the local community scale, or at larger "community-of-interest" regional and national scales. Topics of research include:

Community well-being: contribution of forest-based industries to community well-being; impacts of social and land use change associated with the urbanization of rural areas; understanding community resiliency.
Social networks: characteristics of collaborative stewardship and implications for forest management; development of effective public participation processes; local institutional capacities related to natural resource management.
Social trends: systems for monitoring the social environment; implications of changing demographics for forest management.
Values and perceptions: conflicting values and perceptions related to forests and forest management; sense of place; social and political models of resource valuation.

Cultural Heritage Research:
Relying primarily on the sciences of anthropology, cultural geography, and archaeology, Cultural Heritage Research provides knowledge about the characteristics of sustainable societies, the cultural dimensions of ecosystem management, and the management and enhancement of heritage resources. The major topics of research include:

Traditional local cultures: role of traditional practices in maintaining cultural identity and economic health, use of traditional ecological knowledge.
Human populations and environmental change: sustaining communities and management institutions in the face of conflict, climate change, and resource change; historic human influences on landscape development.

Economics Research:
Economics research provides information for evaluating the consequences of resource management policies and decisions. A wide range of topics are being studied, including the following:

Economic impacts of forest management: role of wood products, non-timber products, and recreation and tourism in local and regional economies
Fire Economics: fire budgeting and program analysis, large fire costs, fuels management, public preferences and perceptions of fire management, economic impacts of wildland fire on local communities.
Forest policy: sustainable forest management, international trade and environmental policies; effects of taxes, laws, and regulations on forest management.
Forest product markets: supply of and demand for forest products; effects of technology change, economic feasibility of processes and products; U.S. competitiveness.
Forest values: monetary and non-monetary valuation of market and non-market goods and services.
Nonindustrial private forest management: effects of natural resource policies on landowner behavior; economic efficiency of alternative management strategies.

Outdoor Recreation Research:
Outdoor Recreation Research provides information about recreation use of forests, supply and demand of recreation opportunities, and impacts of resource management activities and landscape change on recreation activities. A broad range of topics are studied including:

Relationship between ecological conditions and recreation activities: impacts of fire on recreation activities.
Cultural differences in outdoor recreation use: minority participation in outdoor recreation; access to leisure and urban open space opportunities.
Psychological and social dimensions of the recreation experience: human values and perceptions associated with recreation activities; sense of place and recreation management; experiential aspects of wilderness; impacts of criminal activity in forests on recreation; use of recreation fees; recreation visitor conflicts.
Recreation assessment and trends: visitor service quality assessment; national recreation assessment and trend analysis (NSRE); national visitor use monitoring (NVUM); scenic quality assessment.

Resources Planning Act (RPA) Assessment:
The Forest Service has the responsibility to prepare the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974 (RPA) Assessment. This periodic report examines status and trends for natural resources and their management on all forest and rangelands in the United States. The Assessment is used to track trends in the extent and condition of resources, and the supply of and demand for renewable natural resources. Supporting documents provide detailed information on specific resource areas or topics, such as recreation, water, wildlife, fisheries, range forage, timber, minerals, urban forests, climate change, and forest resource statistics. Assessment documents are available on the RPA web site in pdf format.
Link: http://svinet2.fs.fed.us/pl/rpa/

Research and Development Social Science Directory (.pdf file)
This directory describes the research work units in Forest Service Research and Development with social science either as their main mission, or as part of their mission. Information for each work unit is provided on the project or program leader, the main topics of social science research, social scientists and their main areas of research, and web addresses. At the end of the document is an alphabetical listing of scientists, their location, phone number, and e-mail address.
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Links for Social Science Research in Forest Service R&D:

Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute
http://leopold.wilderness.net/

Eastern Forest Use in a Global Economy
http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/princeton/ne4803/ne4803.html

Assessing Trends, Values, and Rural Community Benefits from Outdoor Recreation and Wilderness in Forested Ecosystems
http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/trends/

Center for Urban Forest Research
http://cufr.ucdavis.edu

Cultural Heritage Research
http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/main/labs/albuq/rmrs4853.html

Economic Aspects of Forest Management on Public Lands
http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/missoula/4802/index.html

Economics of Forest Protection and Management
http://www.rtp.srs.fs.fed.us/econ/

Human and Natural Resource Interactions Program
http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/about/programs/hnri/index.shtml

Identification and Valuation of Wildland Resource Benefits
http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/value/

Influence of Markets on the Sustainability of Eastern Hardwood Forests
http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/princeton/ne4803/ne4803.html

Integrating Social and Biophysical Sciences for Natural Resource Management
http://www.fs.fed.us/ne/burlington/research/ne4454/ne4454.htm

Legal, Tax, and Socio-Economic Influences on Forest Resource Management
http://www.srs.fs.fed.us/4802/

Natural Inquirer: http://www.naturalinquirer.usda.gov

Natural Environments for Urban Populations
http://www.ncrs.fs.fed.us/4902/

Natural Resource Assessment, Ecology, and Management Science Research
http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/analytics/

Sierra Nevada Research Center
http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/programs/snrc/

Social and Economic Dimensions of Ecosystem Management
http://www.ncrs.fs.fed.us/4803/

Timber Demand and Technology Assessment Research
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/econ/

Wildland Recreation and Urban Cultures
http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/programs/recreation/