Interpreting wilderness policy in the Bureau of Land Management.

TL;DRAbstract

In 1976, Congress directed the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to review 178 million acres of public lands to identify, by 1991, areas warranting wilderness designation. In response, BLM established a wilderness program and conducted a wilderness review of the public lands in eleven western states. This action generated controversy inside and outside the agency. Much of the controversy arises from the opposition between the development philosophy associated with management of the public lands and the preservation philosophy associated with wilderness. This study examined process and content aspects of the BLM wilderness program. Data were gathered from documents and through participant observation and in-depth interviews. They were analyzed by ethnomethodology, content analysis, and semiotic analysis to develop interpretations of how wilderness policy is implemented within the context of agency culture. As policy process, this is a case of agency members implementing ambiguous policy.

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