EVOLUTION OF USDA-FOREST-SERVICE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND ADAPTATION ISSUES IN EMBRACING AN ECOSYSTEM MANAGEMENT PARADIGM

This paper examines how the USDA Forest Service (USFS) adapted to the changing needs of American society in its industrial (about 1900-1969) and post-industrial (1970 up to present) stages of socio-economic dev elopment. Several marker events in Forest Service adaptation to a post -industrial American society are examined (e.g., Bitterroot clearcutti ng controversy). These events illustrate American cultural changes tha t have moved the agency toward its current 'ecosystem management' era of organizational evolution. Shifts and trends in agency values, polic ies, structures and operation to embrace and implement ecosystem manag ement are examined. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.