Open for All: How Are Federal and Municipal Land Management Agencies Adapting to the COVID-19 Pandemic Alongside Increased Societal Recognition of Racial Injustice
Open Access
- 26 November 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Frontiers Media SA in Frontiers in Sustainable Cities
Abstract
In addition to impacts on human health and the economy, COVID-19 is changing the way humans interact with open space. Across urban to rural settings, public lands–including forests and parks – experienced increases and shifts in recreational use. At the same time, certain public lands have become protest spaces as part of the public uprisings around racial injustice throughout the country. Land managers are adapting in real-time to compound disturbances. In this study, we explore the role of the public land manager during this time across municipal and federal lands and an urban-rural gradient. We ask: How adaptable are public land managers and agencies in their recreation management, collaborative partnerships, and public engagement to social disturbances such as COVID-19 and the co-occurring crisis of systemic racial injustice brought to light by the BLM uprisings and protests? This paper applies qualitative data drawn from a sample of land managers across the northeastern United States. We explore management in terms of partnership arrangements, recreational and educational programs, and stakeholder engagement practices and refine an existing model of organizational resilience. The study finds abiding: reports of increased public lands usership; calls for investment in maintenance; and need for diversity, equity, and inclusion in both organizational settings and landscapes themselves; and the need for workforce capacity. We discover effective ways to respond to compound disturbances that include open and reflective communication, transforming organizational cultures, and transboundary partnerships that are valued as critical assets.Keywords
This publication has 83 references indexed in Scilit:
- Motivated to Adapt? The Role of Public Service Motivation as Employees Face Organizational ChangePublic Administration Review, 2013
- Multi-level governance of British Columbia’s mountain pine beetle crisis: The roles of memory and identityGeoforum, 2013
- Dimensions and models of contemporary public space management in EnglandJournal of Environmental Planning and Management, 2008
- Federal and State Public Forest Administration in the New Millennium: Revisiting Herbert Kaufman’s The Forest RangerPublic Administration Review, 2007
- What Do We Know and Need to Know about the Environmental Outcomes of Collaborative Management?Public Administration Review, 2006
- Organizational Communication: Challenges for the New CenturyJournal of Communication, 2004
- Organizational Communication: Challenges for the New CenturyJournal of Communication, 2004
- Disseminating Information and Soliciting Input during Planned Organizational ChangeManagement Communication Quarterly, 1999
- Hierarchical Controls, Professional Norms, Local Constituencies, and Budget Maximization: An Analysis of U.S. Forest Service Planning DecisionsAmerican Journal of Political Science, 1995
- Herbert Kaufman's Forest Ranger Thirty Years Later: From Simplicity and Homogeneity to Complexity and DiversityPublic Administration Review, 1991