Citizen Participation in Decision Making—A Challenge for Public Land Managers

Abstract

Citizen participation in decision making presents a major challenge to public land managers. Increased participation is needed to counter an imbalance between commodity and noncommodity users in access to information and to influence on decisions. Two serious decisions in implementing participation programs are how much influence to allow to citizen groups, and how to assure proper representation of diverse groups in the process. Vigorous citizen participation programs can benefit land managing agencies by helping reduce conflict, by improving public understanding, and by helping managers assess public attitudes.