Coal River: An Educational Alternative Futures Wildland and Resource Management Planning Game

摘要

The Coal River game presented here is a version of a game 'Mystic Mountain', developed by USDA, Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station. Mystic Mountain is described as an educational game which teaches wildland planners and managers important concepts in alternative futures planning while they attempt to manage a hypothetical national forest for 75 years (five fifteen year periods). Coal River builds on this basic concept, however instead of having competing uses of camping, primitive recreation activities, skiing, timber production and spiritual values, this game deals with managing (1) coal mining by surface methods, (2) primitive recreation activities, (3) camping, (4) river floating and (5) domestic livestock and wild horse forage production. The game is played for five 15 periods, in which the players attempt to meet different competing use production targets under various alternative future scenarios.