Defining economic, social, and environmental goals 

 and using them to guide public programs is difficult 

 and far from an exact science. Decisions on the 

 management and use of renewable resources, how- 

 ever, unavoidably imply that such goals have been 

 determined. The development of ways to translate 

 general societal goals into specific resource manage- 

 ment objectives is an important area for long term 

 research. One technique now being widely used is 

 public participation in management decisions, but the 

 most effective ways of getting and incorporating 

 public participation have yet to be identified and 

 documented. 



As work progressed on the Assessment, another 

 related need has become more and more evident. That 

 need is to study and quantify the social, economic, 

 and environmental implications of the general 

 demand-supply outlook for most renewable resources 

 of forest and range lands, i.e., an outlook in which 

 the demands for most products are rising more rapidly 

 than supplies. This kind of information is a basic 

 need — it is the societal basis for changing policies 

 and programs. The results are likely to have profound 

 impacts on the future management and use of forest 

 and range lands. 



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