Employment diversity and economic performance in small, resource‐dependent communities near western national forests

Despite almost 100 years of policies designed to promote the stability of communities and an emerging body of research on the issue (Byron, 1978; Huebner, 1988; Wear et al., 1989), the relationship between the economies of forest‐dependent communities and resource management is poorly understood (Machlis & Force, 1987; Muth & Lee, 1986; Schallau, 1989). This knowledge gap has made formulation of natural resource management policies difficult. This study aims to clarify relationships between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service programs and the economies of affected small rural communities. The study addresses two main issues; dependence of sample communities on employment associated with Forest Service programs and the relationship between employment diversity and economic performance. A relatively strong case can be made that counties with high employment diversity are better able to cope with changing economic conditions than less diverse counties over time. Thus the effort to facilitate diversification of dependent communities appears to be an appropriate goal. However, short‐term fluctuations that might be expected to change the diversity of an economy did not seem to have an effect. © 1995 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC