ABSTRACT
Critical forestry issues to be faced in the 1980s include forestry's impact on community, conflict management, complex organizations and administrative behavior, technology transfer, and energy needs. The vast amount of forest land in the United States suggests that forestry would have previously attracted the interest of rural sociologists. Foresters have long been concerned about the impact of resource outputs on community stability. Involvement of the public in decision making requires further investigation as a potential device for channeling social conflict. Other administrative functions need to be investigated in order to make resource management more effective. Sociological studies of technology transfer and adoption/diffusion would also apply to numerous other forest management functions and would provide a basis for determining how particular technologies can be fitted to field situations. Large-scale energy production on forest lands may also be more important in the 1980s. Biomass potential, geothermal hydroenergy, kinetic energy potential, and air motion over forest areas are of prospective interest.
