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ABSTRACT
Natural resource managers in the wildland-urban interface struggle with a variety of issues. In particular, land managers are becoming increasingly burdened with societal problems as a result of encroaching development and increased forest use. This article reports on a process used by the Ocala National Forest, Florida, to work through societal issues common in many US forests. Specifically, this article describes (1) the Ocala National Forest situation, (2) the workshop that drove the process, and (3) progress made after the workshop. Identified solutions required the development of long-term, collaborative strategies; however, the process showed that immediate and successful techniques can be identified and implemented when agency personnel use nontraditional decisionmaking strategies. Strengths of the process proved to be the ability to improve communication across administrative layers, engage new and existing partners in a process focused on solutions, and develop immediate solutions, which are designed to result in long-term improvements.
Keywords: wildland-urban interface, forest recreation, crime, motorized recreation, stakeholders
The encroachment of urban development into natural areas has a variety of effects on forests, which present a multitude of challenges to natural resource managers. Ecological impacts include difficulties of managing fire in close proximity to development, increasing incidents of invasive species, and rising rates of air and water pollution. However, urban development can also bring significant shifts in the type of people who visit adjacent national forests and what they do in those forests. The direct impacts from these diverse uses result in a multitude of hard-to-manage societal issues for managers of wildland-interface forests (Dwyer and Chavez 2005).
Increased crime, intense recreation pressures, and higher tendencies for visitor conflicts are some of the major issues natural resource professionals must face when managing land adjacent to urban development. Although tackling these problems through law enforcement might seem like the most straightforward solution, natural resource agencies often do not have the staffing to totally rely on law enforcement officers (Tynon and Chavez 2006) and law enforcement might not be the most appropriate solution for impacts not considered criminal (e.g., recreation crowding; Stein 2005).
The Ocala National Forest (ONF) in north central Florida is the oldest national forest east of the Mississippi River and is undergoing intense use pressure from rapidly developing urban areas on its boundaries...