Michael Cacciapaglia
M.S. Resource Conservation
Expected Graduation: August 2008
Broadly, I am interested in the democratization of natural resource decision-making through greater integration of local people and their values. An expanded focus on the local is necessary in the West with its high percentage of federal lands and history of resource dependent communities. Born from a desire to move beyond the intractable environmental debates of the past few decades, local people have recently been pushing for greater devolution of power. This push has primarily taken the form of collaboration and community-based natural resource management. However, it is important to recognize that these processes may exclude the voices of people not formally engaged with land management agencies or collaborative efforts.
One such group is private forest landowners (PFLs). My thesis project examined the ways in which PFLs living in the wildland-urban interface surrounding Libby, Montana relate to the Kootenai National Forest landscape. I explored the connection between landowners’ sense of place and their views on wildfire/hazardous fuel issues. People have emotional, social, and symbolic relationships with the land and forests. Both management actions and wildland fires have the potential to alter these relationships. Living in Libby for the summer of 2007, I conducted in-depth interviews with local people throughout the eastern foothills of the Cabinet Mountains. Additionally, a participatory GIS mapping exercise allowed me to study the spatiality of PFL sense of place and their preferences for potential forest and fire management actions. This interactive, computer-based mapping program was developed in conjunction with project partners from the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute and the University of Leeds, UK.
My current interests focus on the socio-cultural dimensions of conservation across the Western mosaic of private and public, working and protected landscapes. The University of Montana is an ideal location to experience firsthand the dynamic “New West” and the impacts that it is having on rural and urban communities alike. When I was searching western Montana for a suitable study site, I really had no limit of potential field sites. The same holds true for those studying natural sciences or recreation management. With an abundance of federally protected lands as well as those actively used for resource extraction, Montana is the ideal outdoor laboratory for those that seek to study the intersection of society and conservation.
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