Mw. Brunson et Bs. Steel, SOURCES OF VARIATION IN ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS ABOUT FEDERAL RANGELANDMANAGEMENT, Journal of range management, 49(1), 1996, pp. 69-75
Successful managers of federal rangelands in the next century will hav
e to implement politically supportable policies that address both fora
ge and non-forage values. To do so will require an understanding of be
liefs and attitudes across a wider spectrum of American society than t
he traditional range clientele, In 1993 a study was conducted to exami
ne geographic variation in general public attitudes and beliefs about
federal range management, and the linkage between general environmenta
l values, attitudes toward federal range policy and management, and be
liefs about environmental conditions on federal rangelands. While ther
e was some evidence of an East-West dichotomy on range issues, greater
support was found for a dichotomy between urban areas throughout the
U.S. and rural regions where rangelands are important to local economi
es, Attitudes and beliefs about rangelands were typically rooted in si
mplistic, value-based ideas about the goodness or badness of range pra
ctices and conditions.