Building consensus
Subtitle: legitimate hope or seductive paradox?
By: Stephen F. McCool, Kathleen Guthrie and Jane Kapler Smith.
Contributors: Guthrie, Kathleen.; Smith, Jane Kapler.; Rocky Mountain Research Station (Fort Collins, Colo.)
Series: Research paper RMRS -- RP-25.
Publisher: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station
Published: 2000
Place of publication: Fort Collins, CO
Language: eng
Number of pages: 14
Subjects: Ecosystem management -- Decision making.; Ecosystem management -- Citizen participation.; Group decision making.
Description: To understand how participants in a natural resource planning situation described the nature of consensus, we interviewed scientists, agency planners and managers, and public representatives in two planning processes on the Bitterroot National Forest in west-central Montana. While most interviewees felt the agency had included affected interests and felt that the problem could be resolved through public participation, disagreements about the problem definition occurred. Most could "live with" the decision of the agency, but some could not. People varied in their capacity to assimilate the information presented at public meetings. Interviewees varied in their interpretation of whether a consensus was arrived at in the two public involvement processes investigated, but most agreed that it was an essential step in planning.
Notes: Cover title.

"June 2000."

Includes bibliographical references (p. 14).

Also issued online.