Figure 2. — Clearcutting in some areas has aroused controversy. In this lodgepole pine stand on 

 the Lewis and Clark National Forest, clearcutting in the foreground area was followed by 

 dozer piling and scarification. The stands of young trees on most of the older units have 

 been thinned. 



A Search for Goals 



There appears to be a general consensus 

 among critics that the agency has no overrid- 

 ing goals and objectives, and in the absence of 

 such goals is subject to pressure by sundry 

 vested interest groups. The indictment, as far 

 as it goes, may or may not be correct. In 

 either case such criticisms simply don't go 

 deep enough to provide solutions to the per- 

 ceived problems. The emphasis should not be 

 on fixing blame; rather, efforts should be fo- 

 cused on getting at the root of the problem 

 and moving on with the job that must be 

 done. Furthermore, the conclusions of the 

 critics may be the result of three different 

 possibilities. 



First, they may be looking in the wrong 

 place for the organization's goal. Whereas 

 most critics attempt to spell out a land man- 

 agement or production goal, the agency may 

 simply be seeking an internal goal of survival 

 by striking a balance among competing forces. 



But as Sterling (1970, p. 24) argues, echoing 

 many other equally vocal critics, 



. . . tragically, nothing could be further from 

 the truth. There's been no "balance" at alh The 

 complaints on both sides, in fact, are completely 

 justified and the final compromises reflect, ra- 

 ther than harmony, an appalling lack of leader- 

 ship. The truth is that the Forest Service has no 

 policy. It charts no national course. It simply 

 blows where the political storms blow it, riding 

 the middle of the wind, heading for no port, 

 bent only on somehow keeping afloat. 



When divergent interests are strongly held 

 by different groups, even compromise may 

 not yield a satisfactory solution. An attempt 

 to steer a middle course between vested inter- 

 est groups, a practice referred to as "satisf ic- 

 ing," may prove disastrous. 



Second, the apparent lack of goals may be 

 just that — apparent. There is no reason to say 

 that actions taken or not taken by the Forest 

 Service are irrational or pursue no specific ob- 

 jective simply because they do not yield the 

 results or follow the precepts of any given 



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