Abstract
In the United States (US), family forest owners, a group that includes individuals, families, trusts, and estates, are the largest single landowner category, owning approximately one-third of the nation's forests. These landowners' individualized decision-making on forest management has a profound impact on US forest cover and function at both local and regional scales. We sought to understand perceptions among family forest specialists of: climate impacts and adaptation options across different forested US regions; how family forest owners are taking climate adaptation into consideration in their forest management, if at all; and major barriers to more active management for adaptation among family forest owners. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 48 forest experts across the US who work with family forest owners, including extension specialists, state forestry agency employees, and consulting foresters who focus on family forest engagement. Our interviewees shared details on how both climate change impacts and forest management for climate adaptation vary across the US, and they perceived a lack of active forest management by family forest owners. They explained that western forest landowners confronting the imminent threat of catastrophic wildfires are more likely to see a need for active forest management. By contrast, in the east, where most forestland is privately owned, interviewees said that landowners see relatively fewer climate impacts on their forests and less need for forest management to respond to climate change. Perceived barriers to more active family forest management for climate adaptation include the lack of more robust markets for a wide range of forest products, a higher capacity forestry workforce, education and assistance in planning forest management, and addressing the issue of increased parcelization of family forest lands. We situate these perceptions in conversations on the role of boundary organizations in climate adaptation, how individual adaptation occurs, and how governing methods frame adaptation possibilities.
Highlights
Forest owners1 in the United States (US) own 33.8% (275.7 million acres) of US forestland, more than any other ownership group (Butler et al, 2020)
Situating our work in literature addressing individual-level adaptation, the utility of boundary organizations, and governmentality in forest management, we examine what specialists think about family forest owners and adaptation, as these perceptions shape how they approach family forest owners
The first two parts of our results draw on findings from across all our interviewees regarding: (1) the perceived major impacts of climate change on forests and (2) what are forest management options for climate adaptation
Summary
Forest owners in the United States (US) own 33.8% (275.7 million acres) of US forestland, more than any other ownership group (Butler et al, 2020). Forest owners can engage with trained forest management specialists via cooperative extension, state forestry programs, or consulting forestry companies We interviewed these types of specialists to understand their perceptions of family forest owner adaptation across the continental US because of their collective experience with landowners that have varied objectives, parcel sizes, and forest types. Boundary organizations are entities that bridge science, policy, and practice, and many of our interviewees worked in these boundary roles to collaborate with forest landowners on personalized best forest management approaches. These insights from boundary specialists are key to understanding how individual-level forest adaptation occurs in practice. The findings have applicability beyond the US where others are grappling with how boundary organizations can help individual forest owners adapt to climate change
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