ABSTRACT
This chapter particularly discusses a flexible approach to public involvement referred to here as “open decision making” and the mobilization of a “community of interests”—for the present purposes, a broad-based constituency concerned about a parcel of land and its associated resource. Whatever the public resources agency, managers are finding that their constituents are clamoring for greater access to the decision-making process. The answer is a flexible and comprehensive approach to public involvement, or “open decision making” in communities of interests. This approach is being applied to some national forests today and shows promise. The Forest Service would announce that it was initiating the development of a forest plan and call a public hearing to solicit views on issues the plan was to address. This forces interests into hard positions at the very beginning of the process. In the community of interests, leadership is not the responsibility of any single individual or institution.
