Validation of a forest values typology for use in national forest planning

Abstract

Public values for national forestlands are assumed to underlie preferences for actual forest use and define the context for forest planning and decision making, but the relationship between preferences and attitudes toward forest management activities and public forest values (both use and nonuse values) is not well understood. Using data from a survey of Alaskan residents in the Chugach National Forest plan revision process, the relationship between attitudes toward forest management actions and forest values is examined using a variety of statistical procedures. Key findings indicate that: (1) survey respondents were able to identify with 13 distinct forest values based on a modified forest value typology developed by Rolston and Coufal (1991), (2) no obvious latent structure of variables or constructs emerged from factor analysis of the 13 forest values indicating that the forest value typology may not be easily simplified without compromising the exclusiveness of measured forest values, (3) small, but statistically significant correlations were found between attitudes toward specific forest management practices such as logging and mining and held forest values, and (4) forest values are modestly predictive of respondent preferences for specific forest planning decisions.