c. To help protect and improve the quality of 

 the open space environment in urban and 

 community areas. 



d. To generate forestry opportunities to ac- 

 celerate rural community growth. 



e. To encourage the growth and development 

 of forestry-based enterprises that readily re- 

 spond to consumers' changing needs. 



f. To seek optimum forest landownership pat- 

 terns. 



g. To improve the welfare of underprivileged 

 members of society. 



h. To involve the public in forestry policy and 

 program formulation. 



i. To encourage the development of forestry 

 throughout the world. 



j. To expand public understanding of environ- 

 mental conservation. 



k. To develop and make available a firm scien- 

 tific base for the advancement of forestry. 



It should be apparent to the reader that 

 this list of "objectives" does not satisfy the 

 requirement we have set up in our discussion 

 of decisionmaking. We need an explicit state- 

 ment of overriding goals. The list in "Frame- 



work for the Future" is simply a group of 

 statements on program scope and methods of 

 goal achievement. They do not represent goals 

 themselves, except perhaps for "a" and "b", 

 which are so broad that they lack real mean- 

 ing. As Hagenstein (1971) comments, "it is 

 disquieting to find the program scope is con- 

 fused with objectives." 



This list of objectives, in its apparent fail- 

 ure to recognize the place of goals in decision- 

 making, is a clue to the day-to-day operations 

 of the Forest Service. Such a broad and un- 

 focused policy orientation has the unintended 

 effect of diverting attention from the overrid- 

 ing goal of National Forest land management. 

 The best way to identify the goal of National 

 Forest management is to look at the actual 

 and implied goals as specified in the enabling 

 legislation of the Forest Service. This we have 

 done. The next step then, is to take the legis- 

 lative mandate and from it construct the deci- 

 sion model it implies. 



35 



