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Prognostic Framing of Stakeholders’ Subjectivities: A Case of All-Terrain Vehicle Management on State Public Lands

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Abstract

Management of all-terrain vehicle (ATV) use on Minnesota state forest lands has a contentious history and land managers are caught between ATV riders, non-motorized recreationists, private landowners, and environmental advocates. In this paper, we demonstrate the usefulness of framing distinct perspectives about ATV management on Minnesota state public forests, understand the structure of these management perspectives, identify areas of consensus and disagreement, specify which stakeholders hold the various perspectives, clarify stakeholder perceptions of other stakeholders, and explore the implications for ATV planning and management. Using Q methodology, three distinct perspectives about how we should or should not manage ATVs resulted from our analysis, labeled Expert Management, Multiple Use, and Enforcement and Balance. A surprising degree of unanimity among the three management perspectives was found. Although some of the areas of agreement would be difficult to implement, others would be relatively simple to put into place. We suggest that land managers focus on widely accepted management actions to ameliorate commonly recognized problems, which may ease tensions between stakeholders and make tackling the tougher issues easier.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to all those who participated in the study through interviews and Q-sorting. We extend our gratitude to Grant Wilson and Andy Holdsworth for pre-testing the initial sort and providing constructive feedback on the design of the final sort. We are grateful to Seth Tuler and Kimberly Byrd for their insightful reviews of an earlier draft of this manuscript. We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their many constructive comments and suggestions. The authors extend their gratitude to the Division of Parks and Trails of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for funding this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of the Environment, University of Washington, Box 352100, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Stanley T. Asah

  2. Northern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, 1992 Folwell Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55108, USA

    David N. Bengston

  3. MN DNR, Policy, Research, and Planning, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

    Keith Wendt

  4. Conservation Biology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA

    Leif DeVaney

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  1. Stanley T. Asah
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  2. David N. Bengston
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  4. Leif DeVaney
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Correspondence to Stanley T. Asah.

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Asah, S.T., Bengston, D.N., Wendt, K. et al. Prognostic Framing of Stakeholders’ Subjectivities: A Case of All-Terrain Vehicle Management on State Public Lands. Environmental Management 49, 192–206 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-011-9756-7

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