Although public and interest group input to resource management policy and decisions is considered valuable and is ojien legally mandated, interactions between these groups and government agencies and officials are often marked by conflict and animosity. We examined two potential sources of conflict among these groups: differences among the decision preferences and values of resource managers, members of an environmental group, and the public; and discrepancies between the groups’ perceptions of each other's goal priorities or decision preferences and the actual responses. In general, the results provide evidence for a gulf not only between the actual responses of the three groups, but also between actual and expected responses. This indicates that finding a balance between the concerns of public and special interest groups and management mandates will involve not only assessing the positions of the three groups but also actively resolving discrepancies between expectations for others’ responses and their actual responses.