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Federal and State Public Forest Administration in the New Millennium: Revisiting Herbert Kaufman’s The Forest Ranger
Author(s) -
Koontz Tomas M.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6210.2006.00704.x
Subject(s) - agency (philosophy) , public administration , bureaucracy , state (computer science) , discretion , administration (probate law) , forest management , statute , state forest , political science , stakeholder , state agency , public relations , forestry , sociology , law , politics , geography , algorithm , computer science , social science
Herbert Kaufman’s 1960 investigation of federal forest rangers provided important insights into administrative discretion, agency culture, and natural resource policy making. Subsequent studies of Forest Service administration have documented that agency’s change over time, mirroring broad changes in federal public administration. But little is known about state forest administration. This article describes results from a survey of line officers in 48 state forest agencies, as well as state forest statute analysis. Results indicate systematic state–federal differences in legal constraints, citizen interactions, and the forest administrators themselves. Though these differences foster state administrator decision making based on professional expertise, they do not encourage the incorporation of stakeholder views into agency policy making, nor do they yield a bureaucracy that represents a diverse constituency. State forest administrators perceive substantial external challenges to their professional discretion, but it remains to be seen whether state forest agencies will change to more closely resemble their federal counterpart.