Creating a Multicultural Forest Service in the Civil Rights Era

Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses Summer 8-11-2015 Caring for the Land, Serving People: Creating a Multicultural Forest Service in the Civil Rights Era Donna Lynn Sinclair Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration Commons, and the Urban Studies Commons Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Sinclair, Donna Lynn, "Caring for the Land, Serving People: Creating a Multicultural Forest Service in the Civil Rights Era" (2015). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 2463. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.2461 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. Caring for the Land, Serving People: Creating a Multicultural Forest Service in the Civil Rights Era by Donna Lynn Sinclair A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Studies Dissertation Committee: Carl Abbott, Chair Sy Adler Charles Heying Katrine Barber William Lang Portland State University 2015 © 2015 Donna Lynn Sinclair Abstract This qualitative study of representative bureaucracy examines the extension and limitations of liberal democratic rights by connecting environmental and social history with policy, individual decision making, gender, race, and class in American history. It documents major cultural shifts in a homogeneous patriarchal organization, constraints, advancement, and the historical agency of women and minorities. ―Creating a Multicultural Forest Service‖ identifies a relationship between natural and human resources and tells a story of expanding and contracting civil liberties that shifted over time from women and people of color to include the differently-abled and LGBT communities. It includes oral history as a key to uncovering individual decision points, relational networks, organizational activism, and human/nature relations to shape meaningful explanations of historical institutional change. With gender and race as primary categories, this inquiry forms a history that is critical to understanding federal bureaucratic efforts to meet workforce diversity goals in natural resource organizations. i Acknowledgements Although writing a dissertation appears solitary, it truly takes a community to birth a project like this. In my case, multiple communities contributed over a very long time. From the women historians at Washington State University Vancouver (Jacqueline Peterson, Sue Peabody, and Laurie Mercier) who let me peek into the challenges of scholarly life while modeling the possibilities, to Bill Lang who turned me over to the Urban Studies Department soon after I finished a Master‘s in History, I give thanks. Their belief in my potential and the opportunities they offered gave me the confidence to pursue graduate studies. They have cheered me on since my undergraduate years and their faith in me has fueled my own. My committee, too, provided significant support. Thanks to Charles Heying for introducing me to the policy process, for sharing his experiences as a non-traditional academic, and for the many good discussions inside and outside of class. I thank Sy Adler for introducing me to the literature of policy studies, for his piercing insights about politics and society, and for engaging me in outside community work. Carl Abbott‘s rapid turnaround on reviewing my work was admirable. I have appreciated both his discernments about structure and the questions that prompted me to rethink my approach. His wit in the midst of track changes was unexpected and delightful, always making revision more fun. Thank you, Carl, for shepherding my work through, despite retirement, and for doing it so very cheerfully. I feel fortunate to be among your final graduate students and proud to list you as my chair. Words cannot describe my gratitude toward Bill Lang, who first sent me on the graduate path and then guided me until I was ready to be on my own. Thank you, Bill, for ii agreeing to serve on my committee despite your retirement. As always, your feedback strengthened my work and your presence centered me. My thanks to Katy Barber also extend beyond this work. Thank you, Katy, for helping to shape my social consciousness. Your ability to peel back the veneer of racism and sexism in society is unmatched. You, too, went well beyond your obligations in the midst of sabbatical to serve on my committee. As in so much else, I can‘t imagine having done it without you. This project would not have happened without David Gross, who first brought the oral history proposal to PSU. Like so many of the public employees I‘ve met in the Forest Service, David‘s commitment to his work extends far beyond the requirements. His added passion for civil rights made this project possible. Thank you, David, for sharing an insider‘s view of the Forest Service, for introducing me to this topic, and especially for your friendship. It has enriched my life. Gloria Brown, too, has provided me with greater understanding through many hours of interviewing and discussion. I thank you, Gloria, for sharing your life story, past and present, with me. Thanks to Mary Albertson for sharing her perspective, and for reading and commenting on chapter six. John Kusano also deserves special thanks. He demonstrated the significance of this subject by allowing me a second interview during his final retirement week, and made possible my access to previously unavailable agency reports at his own inconvenience. His assistance provided systematic data and ensured the accuracy of my statistics. Many other Forest Service employees, retired and active, have helped me. They have taken the time for interviews, made materials available, and shared their personal and professional stories. I wish I could have told each person‘s story, as they are the key to this work. I iii have instead listed their names and brief biographies in Appendix B and I thank them formally here. Thanks, too, to the many students who participated in this project from 2004 to 2007. Thanks to Lincoln Bramwell and the Grey Towers Scholar-in-Residence Program for providing a quiet space to write and for bringing me to Washington, D.C. Thanks also to Kathy Wahlgren for giving me space to stay longer and familiarizing me with the city. That experience introduced me to many of the most significant stories I‘ve told and added to the significant body of materials I collected at the Forest History Society under the Bell Travel Fellowship. Thanks to Cheryl Oakes, Steve Anderson and James Lewis for making me feel at home in the archives. The Coordinating Council for Women in History deserves significant credit for granting me the Catherine Prelinger Award. The funds made possible a second trip to D.C., paid for some transcription, and allowed me to take a term off of teaching to finish writing this dissertation. The Prelinger Award also affirmed my scholarship, my journey as a non-traditional student, and pushed me to think about the centrality of women to my work. I am forever grateful to the support provided by my ―History Sista‖ with whom I‘ve shared challenges and successes for many years now. Jan, Eliza, Jo, and Katy, may we continue to sustain one another personally and professionally for years to come. My family deserves the heartiest thanks of all. They have experienced the intensity of my study and writing more closely than anyone, having spent years with an absentee or too-busy mother, spouse, and daughter. I thank you Bud, Mom, Dad, Joe, Jacob, Danielle, Christopher, Madi, and Mylee for your unwavering support and encouragement. iv Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................ i Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. ii List of Tables ................................................................................................................... xii List of Figures ................................................................................................................. xiii List of Acronyms ............................................................................................................ xiv Chapter 1: Multicultural Mandates in the USDA Forest Service, An Introduction ............1 Introducing Entwined Diversification in the U.S. Forest Service ........................3 Historical Background of USDA Forest Service ..............................................12 From Tree Farming to Ecosystems ...........................................................................12 Agency Organization and Structure ...........................................................................17 The Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest ..............................................................18 The Historic Forest Service Work Force ....................................................................22 Diversifying the Federal Workforce ..................................................................25 Legal Mandates and the Evolution of Workforce Diversity .......................................25 Diversifying

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