A Social Assessment of Shawnee National Forest
History, Demographics, and Stakeholder Views of Southern Illinois
David Welch and Tom P. Evans

Introduction
Socioeconomic and cultural factors of the communities surrounding a national forest affect the uses of U.S. Forest Service landholdings. Managers are increasingly considering these factors in their revisions of forest management plans, because decisions about natural resources can profoundly affect stakeholders of the forest. Demographic and economic characteristics of communities as well as indicators of the values, beliefs, and views of individuals living near national forests are important factors to consider in the management of forest resources. A tool called a social assessment facilitates acquiring socioeconomic and cultural information relevant to forest use and forest management (Jakes et al. 1998). A social assessment measures perceptions, interests, and expectations that stakeholders have regarding a forest, its management, and communities in the region. Community-level information derived from historical, demographic, and economic data supplements an individual-level analysis of representatives of key stakeholder groups. The combined individual- and community-level information contributes to the understanding of the expectations and values of residents in and near a national forest. This report for the Shawnee National Forest complements research by Jakes et al. (1998) and Welch et al. (2001a, 2001b) conducted for the Hoosier National Forest.

In preparation for revising their forest management plan, personnel at Shawnee National Forest (SNF) in Illinois sponsored the implementation of a social assessment. Researchers from the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change at Indiana University with the cooperation of the Harrisburg, Illinois, office of the Forest Service conducted a social assessment of the region in and near Shawnee National Forest during the fall of 2001. Results of this social assessment build on previous work conducted by the Forest Service during the development of the 1998-99 Monitoring and Evaluation Report (Starkey 2000), which identified key management issues faced by Shawnee National Forest. Some of the issues regarding the use and management of the forest have been contentious in recent years. By addressing and documenting the knowledge of stakeholder perceptions and the human communities’ relationship with the forest, this report seeks to contribute to the understanding of issues important to the management of forest resources in the SNF area.

Organization of This Report
This report is composed of two distinct sections. The first section presents an overview of the Shawnee National Forest including a description of the social and biophysical conditions in the Shawnee area. This section also describes a brief history of migration and land settlement as they 2 relate to the cultural formation in the SNF area. The content for this part of the report is from a review of literature and socioeconomic data sources, including county-level census data.

The second section of this report presents the views of individuals regarding a series of framed questions about the SNF region, forest uses, and values. In contrast to the first part of this report, the content for this section is drawn from a series of interviews conducted with individuals associated with various institutions with an expressed interest in the management of Shawnee National Forest.

Methods
This social assessment includes an historical overview, an analysis of county-level census data, and results of face-to-face and phone interviews with stakeholders of the forest. Socioeconomic data for the area in and near the Shawnee National Forest was collected from 1990 and 2000 U.S. census data at the county level. Other information was obtained from various Internet and print sources containing socioeconomic data, and maps were created using the ArcView geographic information system. Non-spatially referenced data from the counties of interest were compiled in tables. This socioeconomic information provides data at a regional scale and allows for regional differences across counties in the SNF area to be explored.

Researchers interviewed a total of 58 participants using a combination of in-person and phone interviews. The survey form (see Appendix II) included questions regarding the respondent’s views of uses and management of the Shawnee National Forest and a map exercise in which individuals identified different functionally similar areas in the SNF area. Participants for the social survey were identified from lists of individuals who voluntarily provided contact information at public meetings and who indicated their interest in being informed of management practices and plans with the SNF. Participants were also identified using a snowball sampling technique where previously interviewed participants provided names of representatives from other stakeholder groups. The final group of participants represented a wide array of user groups and perspectives, which included views from members of recreational and environmental advocacy groups, academic and timber professionals’ organizations, members of local governments, and unaffiliated individuals (see Appendix I for a list of organizations with which stakeholders identified an association). This group of participants does not necessarily represent the attitudes of the population of southern Illinois. The procedures used for this study emphasized the collection of in-depth information from stakeholders and therefore the results cannot be deemed as statistically representative.

The interviews included oral questions about the views of uses and management of the forest and a map exercise in which participants identified communities and described how these defined 3 communities used Shawnee National Forest. Of the 58 participants, we performed 18 face-to-face interviews, 35 phone interviews, and 5 interviews with phone and face-to-face components. The interviews conducted in person allowed participants to complete the map exercise portion of the interview. With the personal interviews, we generated 23 maps displaying stakeholders’ perceptions of the communities surrounding the national forest. Tables 1 and 2 show characteristics of the participants.

Copy of the above reports in PDF format:
A Social Assessment of Shawnee National Forest

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Last Updated: May 11, 2005
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