Multi-scale Analysis of Collaborative National Forest Planning Contexts in the Rural US Mountain West

This research analyzes regional and sub-regional contexts of the United States Mountain West where community-based forms of national forest planning are emerging to ameliorate conflict related to New West rural transformations characterized by high population growth and increasing service and amenity-based economies. A county-level typology is developed using cluster techniques applied to demographic, economic, and environmental indicators and a novel measure of spatial accessibility to forest lands. Results identify three types of contexts with differential characteristics relevant to community-based forest planning. A local scale analysis compares characteristics for counties surrounding a national forest with an ongoing community-based collaboration and its participant characteristics. Results show some key differences between participants and their ambient contexts as well as local-scale contextual heterogeneity. A framework for incorporating multiscale data and analyses to address current research needs for the emergent topic of community-based collaboration is presented.