ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that much rural environmental protest is best understood as a new and effective strategy in local resource management that provides channels for reaching decision makers and influencing management decisions. It suggests that conflicts over resource management can be understood if the existence of non-statutory claims to property is recognized. The chapter shows that Adamsville's plant opponents were able to protect resources under the jurisdiction of a nationally responsive bureaucracy, the US Forest Service, by moving the arena to a locally responsive forum: the county government. It examines pre-existing social organization probably made a crucial difference in the ability to mobilize successfully. The chapter presents an analysis of the reaction of some forest-dependent mountain communities in California to identical wood-fired power plants proposed months apart for each town. Woodlake's blackout protest, based on clear pocketbook losses, was in marked contrast to the town's reactions to the power plant proposal.
