Psychosocial factors of U.S. Forest Service staff that influence targeted grazing practice on national forests

Abstract

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  Targeted grazing is gaining popularity for invasive species and fuels management in the American West, but significant uncertainty about its potential remains. The United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USFS) is interested in scaling-up the use of targeted grazing, which requires adaptive rangeland management.
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  Interviews with diverse USFS staff indicated that they have variable attitudes toward targeted grazing, due largely to beliefs about the impact of livestock grazing on vegetation and their attitudes about permittee management of livestock.
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  The intention among staff to take action to implement targeted grazing falls behind their positive attitudes toward the practice, due largely to lack of perceived social pressure to use the tool within the agency.
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  Our findings regarding targeted grazing showed how individual psychosocial variables and behavior can influence agency-wide adaptive management.