Private Forestland Research Articles

Regulatory Intensity on Private Forestland and its Relationship with State Characteristics in the United States

Though the federal government impacts private forest management across the United States through legislation such as the Clean Water Act, state-level regulations applied to private forest landowners vary remarkably. Despite this diversity of policies, little is known about how variations in regulatory intensity (defined here as number of forestry regulations) correlate with state-level political and socioeconomic characteristics. In this study, we use a quantitative approach to explore the intensity of regulation on forest practices impacting private landowners across all 50 states. We quantified intensity by tabulating the number of regulated forest practices, then used a quasi-Poisson regression to estimate the relationship between regulatory intensity and state-level characteristics, including forestland ownership types, the economic importance of the forest industry, and measures of state environmentalism. Results indicated a positive association between regulatory intensity and the percent of private corporate land, environmental voting records of elected officials, and direct democracy. Foresters and landowners may learn from these relationships, consider how to influence different policies, and build or achieve greater levels of public trust. This study starts to help us explain why state-level forestry policies differ, not just how they differ.

Evidence of mesophication following selective cutting and shelterwood in Virginia’s eastern deciduous forest, USA

The replacement of oaks (Quercus) with mesic tree species in the eastern deciduous forests of North America involves a positive feedback loop being driven by fire suppression and climate change. In this study, we explored the impact of timber harvesting as a potential facilitator of mesophication. Young stands resulting from shelterwoods (on federal lands) and selective cutting (on private lands) were sampled to compare the composition and density of seedlings, saplings, and trees in western Virginia, USA. Oak overstory trees had lower importance values and densities at selective cutting sites compared to shelterwood sites. Among saplings, mesic species had higher importance values and densities than oaks at both selective cutting and shelterwood sites. Evidence of mesophication was found at both selective cutting and shelterwood sites; but a higher level of mesophication appeared to be occurring at the selective cutting sites than at shelterwood sites. At selective cutting sites scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea) was absent from all sampled plots and a dense midstory of subcanopy trees, especially eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis), appeared to be hindering successful oak regeneration. Our results indicate timber harvesting, without regard for the composition of the regeneration layer, may facilitate mesophication in the eastern deciduous forest, with selective cutting resulting in more successful establishment of mesic species compared to shelterwoods. These findings have implications for mesophication on private forest lands, where selective cutting is a very common method of timber harvesting.

Factors influencing forestland enrollment in Georgia's preferential property tax programs

More than two-thirds of Georgia's private forestland (or 14.6 million acres) are enrolled in one of the state's preferential property tax programs. Besides alleviating property tax burdens for rural landowners, the purposes of these incentive programs have gradually evolved from ensuring a sustainable supply of agricultural and timber products to promoting the conservation of rural open space and provision of ecosystem services. This study examined the factors associated with forestland enrollment in Georgia's major current-use tax programs using a combination of parcel-level spatial data, property tax roll, and county-level economic data for all private forestland in the study counties. A multilevel logistic regression model was used to control the effects of hierarchical data structure. A forest parcel's size, tax savings, neighboring parcel enrollment, land value, land productivity, landowner's residence status in relation to the property, development potential (e.g., distance to cities, county population density) as well as distance to lakes and identified conservation areas are important predictors of its likelihood of being enrolled in the property tax incentive programs. Larger forest parcels, located close to identified potential conservation areas, characterized by high soil productivity, held by non-absentee owners, and adjacent to enrolled parcels were more likely to be enrolled in the current-use tax programs.

Losing the slow race: How deer hinder growth, survival, and regeneration of juvenile hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis)

White-tailed deer can limit both growth and survival in slow-growing, shade-tolerant tree species. We monitored 1,100 juvenile hemlocks (Tsuga canadensis) for up to 20 years at 54 sites in northern Wisconsin and Michigan to document causes of recruitment failure. These sites include public and private forestlands and First Nation reservations with distinct approaches to forest and wildlife management. We assessed deer impacts experimentally by protecting half of the juveniles from deer and observationally by tracking unprotected individuals at sites with various deer densities. We estimated local deer and hare presence and density using repeated pellet counts, which best predicted the survival and growth of juvenile hemlocks. Caged individuals out-survived unprotected ones (35.2 vs. 15.0y estimated half-lives). For the fastest-growing quartiles, transition times through the “molar zone” of vulnerability to deer browse (heights 5–200 cm) were 33.4 and 77.7y for protected vs. unprotected juveniles. Deer browsing strongly reduces both survival and growth, allowing us to compare estimates of these processes and their ratio among sites and cohorts. The “Regeneration Ratio” of half-life to growth averaged 1.06 for the top quartile of protected hemlock juveniles vs. 0.19 for juveniles exposed to deer. Ratios below 1.0 suggest risks to hemlock regeneration while values below 0.50 signal likely failure. Forest and wildlife managers must limit deer impacts if hemlock trees and stands are to remain viable components of the region’s forests.

Proportion of Nonindustrial Private Forest Lands That Potentially Can Be Leased to Bioenergy Enterprises to Grow Short Rotation Woody Crops

Abstract Determining how much nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) land could potentially be allocated to growing short rotation woody crops (SRWCs) is critical for estimating the future supply of woody biomass for biofuels and overall bioenergy production. This study estimated the proportion of the land NIPF landowners would be willing to allocate to SRWC cultivation. In view of the bounded nature of the dependent binary variable [0,1] and model performance, a fractional logit regression model was used to estimate model parameters. The estimated proportion of land allocated to SRWCs was positively influenced by the rental rate per acre, owning land for investment or fee-access hunting purposes, and the landowner’s age. In contrast, size of the ownership, owning land for the production of agricultural products, and residing on the land negatively influenced the proportion of land allocated to SRWCs. Lease contract duration, location of the largest tract owned, owning land for personal recreation or ecosystem services, and landowner familiarity with the concept of alternative fuels production did not influence the proportion of land allocated to SRWCs. These results will contribute to a better understanding of SRWC biomass supply from NIPF land and provide important benchmark information for conducting feasibility analyses of biofuel and biopower manufacturing in Mississippi and other states with abundant woody feedstocks. Study Implications: To achieve targeted levels of bioenergy production and carbon dioxide (CO2) emission reductions and diversify NIPF landowner income, participation of NIPF landowners in woody biomass feedstock production will be critical, because they own a majority of forestland in the region. Moreover, they have diverse reasons for owning land which has extensive implications not only in terms of incentive types or monetary compensation levels they might require for cultivating SRWCs but also policies related to the development of the bioenergy sector in Mississippi, the location of individual bioenergy processing facilities, and feedstock types that will be developed. Thus, forest managers and biomass procurement foresters might need to decide whether to focus their efforts on maximizing the land area allocated to growing SRWCs or considering a mix of SRWCs at lower lease rates per acre and material obtained from thinnings, which might be more amenable to landowners who value environmental amenities.

By the Book: Examining California’s Private Forest Regulations from the Perspectives of Family Forest Landowners

Private forest land policies in the U.S. differ by state and range from regulatory to non-regulatory. The state of California has a highly regulatory policy system to ensure sustainable forest management, and the state’s family forest landowners, who hold 20% of the state’s forests, navigate this regulatory system to achieve their management objectives. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 33 family forest landowners to better understand their perceptions of state forest policies, including the policies’ efficacy and how they impact landowner behavior. We found that participants voiced general acceptance of California’s forest policies, though they described significant concerns because of financial burdens and regulatory uncertainty. They had nuanced views regarding how the policies protect public trust resources and private property rights, suggesting that landowners’ public responsibilities and private rights are not always at odds.

Uncovering the Latent Preferences of Slovenia’s Private Forest Owners in the Context of Enhancing Forest Ecosystem Services through a Hypothetical Scheme

Background and objectives: Successful policy implementation relies on understanding stakeholders’ willingness to contribute to policy goals. The EU Green Deal, with strategies on forests, biodiversity, and the bioeconomy, also depends on the performance of the forestry sector, including a significant portion of privately owned forests. Materials and methods: We conducted a nationwide survey among a sample of 341 private forest owners in Slovenia (total population of 424,086). The online questionnaire had three sections: (1) knowledge and priorities regarding ecosystem services and the bioeconomy, (2) a discrete choice experiment for eliciting preferences concerning the implementation of activities supporting strategic goals originating from EU Green Deal policies, and (3) socio-economic data and future forest management objectives. Results: The results indicated heterogeneity in preferences for performing activities on private forest lands to enhance specific forest ES that contribute to policy goals. More than half of the respondents (57.6%) exhibited a reluctance to implement activities and were skeptical of higher compensation payments, whereas the rest expressed an inclination towards changing their forest management. Conclusions: Slovenia’s private forest owners appear to be heterogeneous in their willingness to participate in a hypothetical ES enhancement scheme that could contribute to some EU Green Deal goals. Policymakers must recognize intrinsic motives and social norms that affect the willingness of forest owners to be engaged to increase the acceptance of solutions.

The Southeastern U.S. Prescribed Fire Permit Database: Hot Spots and Hot Moments in Prescribed Fire across the Southeastern U.S.A.

Prescribed fire is an important land conservation tool to meet ecological, cultural, and public safety objectives across terrestrial ecosystems. While estimates of prescribed burning in the U.S.A. exceed 4.5 million hectares annually, tracking the extent of prescribed fire is problematic for several reasons and prevents an understanding of spatial and temporal trends in landscape patterns of prescribed fires. We developed a regional prescribed fire database from 12 state forestry agencies in the southeastern U.S. using records of burn location, size, and calendar days and evaluated spatial and temporal patterns in burning from 2010 to 2020. Over half of all prescribed fires in the U.S. occur in the Southeast, with five states (Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, and Mississippi) comprising over ninety percent of the burned area over a decade. We identified hot spots of concentrated prescribed fire activity on both public and private forestlands across the region, as well as regions of less burning, which often occurred in close proximity to hot spots. Temporally, most prescribed fires occurred in March and February across the region; the least activity was recorded between May and November. Our database reveals that burning is highly concentrated within the region, presumably reflecting local land ownership categories and associated land management objectives. This database and these analyses provide the first region-wide summary of fine-scale patterns of prescribed fire in the U.S. and demonstrate the potential for various analyses beyond this work for air quality modeling and remote sensing, as well as the potential impacts of demographic and land use changes.

“The cost of doing business”: Private rights, public resources, and the resulting diversity of state-level forestry policies in the U.S.

In the U.S., the combination of federal, state, and local forest rules and programs create the policy environment in which private forest landowners manage their land, which in turn impacts the quality and conservation of ecosystem services produced. While previous studies provide overviews of forest policies impacting private landowners at moments in time, they lack the depth and perspective needed to describe the political context of forest policies, including the mechanisms underlying this diversity: the how and why of particular policies. This study fills that gap by utilizing interviews with policy experts from 12 case-study states to investigate the range of forest policies present in the U.S. We also explored the perceived trade-offs between protection of public trust resources and private property rights on private forest lands in their states, and the key actors (groups) influencing policy changes over time. Overall, the strong role of private property rights in the United States was consistent across case-study states, although most experts indicated a balance between protecting public trust resources and private property rights. The variability of policy tools employed among states suggests many avenues to achieve this balance, including policies that are created through market-based mechanisms rather than the state (i.e., certification). We also found that local-level regulations contributed to diversity and, at times, conflict and confusion within states. Finally, although landowner stewardship is not a policy tool, we found that states implicitly and explicitly relied on landowner knowledge and values to protect public trust resources, a strategy that some participants agreed fostered trust between the state and its private forest landowners.

Outdoor recreation and the private forest owner: Place attachment, social values, and public access

IntroductionThe Swedish National Forest Program emphasizes that the forest can be more multifunctional where the values created by human experiences of the forest, i.e., social values, can be used for tourism and outdoor recreation, leading to rural development and sustainable growth. To develop multifunctional forests in this respect, private forest owners' perspectives on development are critically important. For example, the place attachment of the private forest owners affects how they manage their forests. Therefore, it is crucial to consider private forest owners' perspectives when planning land use.MethodThe study area is a region in southwest Sweden (Hallandsås) designated as a national interest area for outdoor recreation. There is interest in expanding and developing nature-based tourism, including trail systems, based on the perception of the areas as having great outdoor recreation value. This article aims to present findings from a study that investigated the potential for outdoor recreation development in the forests of Hallandsås. A questionnaire was sent out to private forest owners, which contained questions about social values, perspectives on the Swedish right of public access, development of outdoor recreation, and place attachment.ResultsThe results showed that private forest owners considered health, well-being, and a good living environment the most important social values of their forested lands. The identity and cultural heritage value of private forest lands and the value of working on the land were the second and third most highly identified forest social values. Outdoor recreation was not identified as a top forest social value.DiscussionThe analysis identified seven key factors that must be considered with outdoor recreation development, given concerns and the importance of other forest social values. Careful consideration of these factors and their interactions can provide a path for outdoor recreation development that is respectful to people and places. This consideration is at the core of landscape protection and management as interpreted by the European Landscape Convention. Forest owners' social values are a critical part of landscape quality objectives, along with planning that links public aspirations with landscape character.

The effects of teak shades at different ages on early growth of 3 tuber species in Semin Village, Gunung Kidul

The government’s efforts in maintaining the food security includes developing alternative food sources, developing local food crops and improving the use of dry land for food crops cultivation. Planting tubers are common in private forest lands, such as in Semin Village, where arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea L.) can live under teak (Tectona grandis L.) stands. Based on this, a trial was conducted on planting three species of tubers, namely arrowroot/garut, canna/ganyong (Canna discolor Lindl.), and yam/gembili (Dioscorea esculenta (Lour.) Burk.) under teak stands. In mixed cropping patterns, there are limitations in obtaining light and nutrient sources for the plants underneath. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the morphological adaptation of three species of tubers, especially under the shade of teak, at different ages. The research design was completely randomized (CRD), while data analysis used two-way Anova. The results showed that the difference in relative light intensity (RLI) at eight weeks after planting had a significant effect on the height, the number of shoots or stems, and the number of leaves of the tested tubers. The size of the plant and the diameter of the stem showed the highest average under the shade of seven years teak stand, the contrary, the highest number of shoots or stems found in the open areas.

Cross-Boundary Sustainability: Assessment across Forest Ownership Categories in the Conterminous USA Using the Montréal Process Criteria and Indicators Framework

The conservation and sustainable management of forests across ownership groups of the conterminous USA was assessed using the Montréal Process Criteria and Indicators (C&I) framework using national forest inventory and other data. Sixty-one percent of the forest area in the USA is Privately owned (20% Corporate, 39% Family, and 2% Other Private), 37% is Public (28% Federal, 2% Local, and 7% State), and 2% is within Native American Tribal Reservation boundaries. There are many commonalities across ownership categories, but there are also important differences. A 1.1 million ha yr−1 decrease in Family forestland and a 1.0 million ha yr−1 increase in Corporate forestland (C&I 1.1.a) between 2012 and 2019 are among the main trends with implications for sustainability and influence all other aspects considered through the C&I. The majority of annual timber harvests (C&I 2.d) comes from Corporate (46%) and Family (42%) forestlands. Of the most common species, net growth to removal ratios (C&I 2.d) are less than 1.0 for three species on Tribal forestland, two species on Federal forestlands, and two species on Corporate forestlands. Disturbances (C&I 3.a and 3.b) are relatively common (ranging from 4 to 15% of forestland within an ownership category) across ownership categories with the highest proportion of disturbances being caused by diseases and pests on Federal forestland. Differences in the legal and institutional frameworks across ownership categories (Criterion 7) influence how the forest resources can be managed and how policies, programs, and services can be designed and implemented to help maintain and enhance the flow of forest-based goods and services. This analysis helps illustrate that sustainability is complex, C&I are imperfect, and there are additional elements, such as recreational access and ownership/management objectives, that would be helpful for comparing across ownership categories. But the Montréal Process C&I framework helps elucidate the relative threats among ownership categories, in particular the loss of Family forestland to non-forest uses and the increase in disturbances across most ownership categories, and the relative opportunities across ownership categories, including the sustainable supply of timber from Corporate and Family forestlands and the relatively high tree, and presumably broader, biodiversity especially on Local and Other Private forestlands.

State-level forestry policies across the US: Discourses reflecting the tension between private property rights and public trust resources

Policies impacting forest management on privately-owned lands demonstrate remarkable variety across the United States, with each state emphasizing different approaches to balancing private property rights with the protection of public trust resources. Though private property rights are historically paramount in the US, previous researchers have identified a variety of policy approaches on private forest lands, from regulatory to non-regulatory. We expand on these categories through a discourse analysis of state-produced documents (including legislation, rules, and best management practices manuals). Through this analysis, we create a typology of categories that express assumptions about landowner behavior and the appropriate role of state intervention. The typology identifies four discourse categories used to varying degrees within each state: landowner stewardship, forestry expert stewardship, science-bureaucracy, and participatory conservation. This typology allows for comparison of policy approaches and comparison across resources and jurisdictions.

Private Forestlands in South Carolina: Motivations for Implementing Conservation Practices

This study aims to understand the conservation practices taking place on private forestlands in South Carolina, United States. Much of the forestlands in the eastern United States are privately owned, and landowners can elect whether to implement conservation practices. A questionnaire was distributed to South Carolina landowners to elicit information on land tenure, the type of conservation practices they use, and the best methods for increasing the use of these practices. We specifically focused on prescribed fire because of its importance to management regimes and the debate that surrounds this practice. Results from our questionnaire that was randomly distributed to South Carolina forest landowners showed that many landowners use at least one conservation practice or are interested in implementing one or more practice. Our Logit regression analysis showed that certain factors including land size and belonging to an environmental group were significant and associated with increased implementation of prescribe fire. From the model and statistical analysis of the landowner responses, we inferred that educational and financial resources are two crucial factors for encouraging landowners to implement conservation practices and retain landowners already involved in the cost share programs. Furthermore, helping landowners with implementation of prescribed fire through their inclusion in prescribed fire organizations and funding opportunities would most likely increase adoption and contribute to conserving ecosystem services in South Carolina and other states with large areas of land in private ownership.

Social value of bird conservation on private forest lands in Pennsylvania, USA

Global biodiversity is in decline due to factors such as land-use change, pollution, and climate change. Birds contribute to biodiversity in several ways; one way, in particular, is by cultivating public support for habitat conservation by being a socially desirable category of wildlife. To understand the social value of bird conservation on private forest lands in Pennsylvania, a statewide web survey was used containing psychometric scales and choice experiment questions (n = 690). The data collected was used to identify important attitudinal positions and estimate statewide demand for bird conservation programs on private lands under different policy options. Mean household WTP was estimated to be $11.83 annually, and statewide demand was estimated to exceed $47 million annually. Nonuse and cultural values underpinned much of the utility associated with the proposed habitat conservation programs. Findings suggest investment in both public education and bird conservation on private lands is a legitimate strategy for mitigating biodiversity loss and enhancing social welfare.

Policy Processes in the Institutionalisation of Private Forestry in the Republic of North Macedonia

As a result of recent political changes in North Macedonia, economic practice in the country has moved away from the communist model that was dominated by state ownership. As a part of this movement, the National Association of Private Forest Owners was founded to support the sustainable management of private forests and as an instrument to help overcome the new challenges faced by this new interest group and government policy in local forestry. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to understand the enabling and constraining aspects of North Macedonian forest policy on the institutionalisation of private forestry. The findings show that some socialist structures and practices related to forest management activities on private forest land still exist. The attempts to strengthen private forestry by introducing more modern forms of institutionalisation can be seen in the country’s Law on Forests amendment from 2011 initiating the denationalisation of forest management activities on private forest land and introducing private licenced bodies for such. With further amendments in 2014, the policy largely returned to how it was when the country was a part of Yugoslavia, influencing the progress of the institutionalisation of private forestry to remain symbolic. Integrating solutions to private forestry problems and concerns into the broader forest policy domain requires a deep understanding of private forestry rational principles and a strong political will to do so. Effective national forest policy coordination is one of the solutions.

Cumulative Severity of Thinned and Unthinned Forests in a Large California Wildfire

Studies pertaining to fire severity in commercially thinned versus unthinned forests are based on a comparison of tree mortality between the two categories. Commercial thinning is widely conducted on public and private forestlands as a fire management approach designed to reduce fire severity and associated tree mortality. However, tree mortality from thinning itself, prior to the occurrence of the wildfire, is generally not taken into account, which leaves a potentially important source of tree loss, with its associated forest carbon loss and carbon emissions, unreported. This study investigated the “cumulative severity” of commercially thinned and unthinned forests in a large 2021 wildfire, the Antelope fire, occurring within mixed-conifer forests on public lands in northern California, USA. Using published data regarding the percent basal area mortality for each commercial thinning unit that burned in the Antelope fire, combined with percent basal area mortality due to the fire itself from post-fire satellite imagery, it was found that commercial thinning was associated with significantly higher overall tree mortality levels (cumulative severity). More research is needed, in other large forest fires, to determine whether the finding, that commercial thinning killed more trees than it prevented from being killed, is common elsewhere.

Willingness of private landowners to participate in forest conservation in the Chaco region of Argentina

To effectively conserve forests and the ecosystem services they provide, mechanisms are needed to promote conservation on private lands that reduce forest fragmentation, secure lands with high conservation value, and enhance landscape connectivity. Incentive-based programs like payments for ecosystem services (PES) are important policy tools for attaining conservation on private lands. In 2019, we conducted 81 in-person surveys with private forestland owners, whose properties are located on the border of protected areas and in corridors connecting protected areas in Argentina's Chaco forest. We examined landowners' preferences for alternative conservation incentives, how Argentina's current PES program could be altered to increase landowner enrollment, and the amount of compensation landowners require to enroll in PES. We found that knowledge of Argentina's PES program, motivations for forest ownership, attitudes toward forest conservation policy, and property characteristics influenced landowners' preferences for conservation program design. Although indigenous communities preferred conservation easements, other private landowners were more likely to choose a PES program. Research participants preferred PES programs with shorter contract lengths or that permitted them to engage in silvopasture. The payments research participants required to engage in land uses currently authorized under Argentina's PES program exceed current PES funding. Relying solely on PES to engage landowners in conservation may result in lost opportunities to conserve forest on private lands.

Biodiversity conservation in private forests: Factors driving landowner's attitude

In many countries, biodiversity conservation strategies are aimed not only for state land, but also private land. Participation of landowners in conservation programmes can be viewed as a continuum from voluntary by the landowner to force by the existing legislation. The biodiversity conservation system of Latvia represents a case where in certain situations (such as establishment of micro-reserves) strict forest management restrictions can be implemented without acceptance of landowners. This causes conflicts with forest owners, which can negatively affect the success of reaching biodiversity conservation goals. Therefore, we aimed to explore factors driving private forest owner's attitude towards biodiversity conservation in their land. Mixed-mode survey was utilized for gathering information from 386 private forest owners. Ordinal logistic regression (OLS) models were used to analyze relationships between predictor and response variables. Our results suggested that financial dependence on income from forest harvest was the main factor causing negative attitude of landowners towards biodiversity conservation measures for private land of Latvia. This factor was significantly correlated with a forestry background (education, occupation and size of forest land). However, landowner education and general conservation values also influenced landowner willingness to accept conservation measures on private forest land. We highlighted a great potential for voluntary biodiversity conservation mechanisms in Latvia, which could complement existing (regulatory approach based) biodiversity conservation instruments.

PERTUMBUHAN TANAMAN JABON PADA SATU ROTASI (6 TAHUN) DENGAN AWAL TUMPANGSARI PADA HUTAN RAKYAT DI DESA WIDODOMARTANI, KECAMATAN NGEMPLAK, KABUPATEN SLEMAN, YOGYAKARTA

One of main supplier on wood industry is Antocephalus cadamba from private forestland. A. cadamba can be harvested at 6 years with the price of Rp 900,000.00 per cubic meter. A. cadamba has been planted in various areas, one of them in Widodomartani, Ngemplak, Sleman, Yogyakarta Province. The succes silviculture A. cadamba if from planting to harvesting with good practice. One of supported succes planting is used multicropping. This research aims to determine the growth at one rotation (six years) with initial planting used multicropping.Planting is done with a distance of 2x2 m in the planting. The growth data (height and diameter) was taken in each treatment (6 treatments) and each treatment tree repeated. The data obtained were analyzed by anova and if there were significant differences in the factors, followed by the LSD test. The analysis showed that the treatment is significantly effect agants height and diameter growth. The growth rate of A. cadamba at 6 years planted is 14,48 m height and 14,61 cm diameter. 
 Key words: Growth, Jabon (Antocephalus cadamba), Initial multicropping