Locking the Back Door: The Implications of Eliminating Postdecisional Appeals in National Forest Planning

摘要

The Forest Service's new planning regulation "locks the back door." It replaces post-decisional appeals of forest plans with a "ptedecisional objection process" within a framework of collaborative planning. This article examines the agency's rationalefor eliminating postdecisional appeals of forest plans, and explores the potential implications of this policy initiative. Viewing appeals as a mechanism of democratic accountability, the analysis examines environmentalists' use of the appeals process,and the effects of appeals on Forest Service land management and policy. The article concludes with observations about the role of conflict and the legitimacy of appeals as one avenue of democratic participation.