Well-Being Assessment of Communities in the Klamath Region

The study methodology was initially developed and utilized in the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project Social Assessment (see Doak and Kusel, 1996). This new methodological approach was developed because previous discussions of well-being of forest dependent communities have long been too narrowly couched in the context of extractive forest management activities. Well-being, commonly discussed as "community stability," was tied to a steady flow of timber products. Conventional thinking held that a steady flow of wood products, or primary logs, would ensure stable employment in the timber industry and lead to community stability. Yet with increasing efficiency, mechanization and consolidation of the wood products industry over the last two decades, the positive relationship between harvest levels and local well-being, if indeed the flow of logs ever did directly lead to community well-being, has weakened. This thinking also ignored the fact that many rural communities are dependent on the forest for more than wood. Further impetus for the development of this methodology stems from social impact assessment and broader studies of well-being which have generated numerous approaches to measure it, including measures of income, utility, personal satisfaction and happiness, but without agreement on concepts or list of variables. (For additional discussion see Kusel, 1996.)