Types Of Landowners Research Articles

Pagos por captura de carbono en el mercado voluntario en México: diversidad y complejidad de su aplicación en Chiapas y Oaxaca

Los proyectos forestales inscritos en el mercado de carbono voluntario en México son instrumentos que se basan en la mercantilización de un servicio ecosistémico y que consisten en la venta de créditos a un precio establecido en el mercado. Este artículo analiza las características de gobernanza de estos proyectos a través del estudio de dos casos representativos en el país, buscando con ello entender los fundamentos que sustentan su aplicación y el marco institucional en el cual evolucionan. El análisis se basó en una revisión bibliográfica sobre el tema de instrumentos de mercado y trabajo de campo en las comunidades donde se aplican los proyectos forestales. Los resultados muestran que los proyectos de captura de carbono en el mercado voluntario representan una forma de gobernanza ambiental emancipada del Estado, basada en el acuerdo de varios actores con papeles específicos, con marcadas diferencias en los esquemas de funcionamiento establecidos en los contratos. Se detectó que el tipo de tenencia de la tierra es una fuente potencial de conflicto en la aplicación de este tipo de proyectos, los cuales dependen además de la capacidad de cooperación de las comunidades donde se emprenden. Tales proyectos integran iniciativas locales para solucionar un problema a escala global a través de la democratización de la gestión ambiental. Sin embargo, su fundamento neoliberal hace que estos proyectos estén en función del mercado y que, paradójicamente, se busque un mecanismo de solución en el mismo lenguaje monetario que ha causado la crisis ambiental.

НАБЛИЖЕННЯ ДО МОДЕЛІ УПРАВЛІННЯ ПОРТ-ЛЕНДЛОРД: УКРАЇНСЬКИЙ КОНТЕКСТ

With the beginning of port reform in Ukraine, the model of port sector gover-nance was changed. Established in 2013, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority was endowed with administrative, maritime safety and security functions. Purely commercial activities remained with public and private stevedoring companies and marine terminals. This distribution of functionality in seaports has brought the domestic governance model closer to the well-known in North America and North-Western Europe – landlord-port model. The aspects identified as a result of the study,namely control over land plots, legal status of the Ukrainian Sa Ports Authority, the presence of state stevedores, and unsettled relations with local authorities, do not allow to classify the domestic port governance model in the classical sense of landlord-port. The latter points rather to a hybrid model in Ukraine with some elements of landlord-port model, such as concessions, private participation in services etc. The most vulnerable element in the context of the port-landlord model at the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority is the lack of a mechanism for managing port areas due to the presence of several types of landowners in a seaport including public, local and private entities. The article proposes a number of measures, including corporatization of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, amendments to the legislation, innovations in the distribution of concession fees, support of the state's exit from the stevedoring activity segment in ports, as wellas an inventory of port territories, the implementation of which can qualitatively bring the Ukrainian model closer to the port management practices of North-Western Europe. In addition, involvement of local authorities into activities of seaport councils as permanent members, and -after corporatization of Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority- to participate in pilot projects of joint ownership of autonomous port authorities (for example in the ports of Odessa and Mykolayiv) could facilitate a sustainable cooperation between a port and local governance

The Limbu People in the Ethnosocial Structure of Nepal (1774–1968)

This article describes some specific features of the ethnosocial status of the Limbus in Nepal. Since the annexation by Royal Nepal, the Limbus have retained a certain degree of autonomy which is centered around maintaining their own traditional system of land ownership. This was the only ethnicity based type of land ownership in Nepal. The rest of the land was originally state-owned and the state put it out to lease or sold it to tenants. However, the Limbus’ autonomy gradually decreased as time passed, the amount of clan-owned lands was reduced, and gradual integration into the Hindu society was begun. The Limbus were included into the caste system, in which they were placed in between the upper-caste and the untouchable Parbatiya. Hindu practices supplanted traditional ones, for example, ground burial was replaced by cremation and some rites were performed by Brahmins instead of Shamans. Gradually the Limbus started to worship Hindu deities, make occasional offerings in the Hindu temples, and to celebrate Nepali state holidays. The intensification of Sanskritization led to the consolidation of ethnic movements among the Limbus. In the middle of the XX century, the Limbu alphabet was rediscovered and Limbu ethnic associations emerged. These associations tried to increase the political influence of the Limbus and to retain their traditional culture and beliefs, which they considered to be the core of their ethnic identity. There was also an attempt to create a new syncretistic religion on the basis of Hinduism and traditional beliefs of the Limbus. These multidirectional processes formed the basis of the transformations occurring nowadays among the small nations of South Asia.

Landowner functional types to characterize response to invasive forest insects

Abstract Invasive forest insects can induce tree mortality in two ways: (a) by directly harming trees; or (b) by influencing forest owners to pre‐emptively harvest threatened trees. This study investigates forest owners’ intentions to harvest trees threatened by invasive insects. Our first objective is to identify and characterize agent functional types (AFTs) of family forest owners in the northeastern United States using a set of contingent behaviour questions contained in a mail survey. We establish AFTs as a form of dimension reduction, effectively casting landowners into a typology in which each type (AFT) has distinct probabilities of tree harvesting in response to forest insects. Our analysis identifies three functional types of landowners: ‘Cutters’ (46% of respondents; high intent to harvest trees impacted by invasive forest insects), ‘Responsive Cutters’ (42% of respondents; intent sensitive to insect impact severity), and ‘Non‐cutters’ (12% of respondents; low intent to cut). Our second objective is to model AFT membership to predict the distribution of AFTs across the landscape. Predictors are chosen from a set of survey, geographic and demographic features. Our best AFT‐prediction model has three predictor variables: parcel size (hectares of forest), geographical region, and town‐level forested fraction. Application of the model provides a high‐resolution probability distribution of AFTs across the landscape. By coupling human and insect behaviour, our results allow for holistic assessments of how invasive forest insects disturb forests, inclusive of the management response to these pests. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

Dependence Level of Rural Landless Households on Allocated Communal Land: Evidences from Kilte Awlaelo and Atsbi Wenberta Districts, Tigrai Region Northern Ethiopia

The problem of landlessness has become one of the major challenges facing rural farmers in Tigrai region since the early 1990s. To address the problem, the regional government of Tigrai started to redistribute degraded communal land to landless farmers by ensuring their participation in soil and water conservation activities and willingness to engage in the programme. Thus, the specific objectives of this study are to examine the livelihood options and analyse their economic dependence level of the rural landless households on the apportioned degraded communal land. Data were collected from randomly selected landless households and analysed using descriptive and econometric techniques. Accordingly, the study identified plantation of timber trees, grass collection, engaging in animal fattening, fruit or vegetable production, beekeeping and poultry production were the major livelihood activities practised in the allocated degraded communal land. The study also indicated that the major factors influencing the dependence level of rural landless households on allocated communal land include gender of household head, marital status of household head, distance to farmers’ training centre, livestock holding, land ownership, experience in the programme, communal land ownership type, financial support and per capita expenditure of the households. Therefore, the study concluded that even if the regional government tried to solve the problem of landlessness through hillside distribution programme, it could not sufficiently support the livelihood of the landless rural households in the study districts.

Using spatially explicit, time‐dependent analysis to understand how social factors influence conservation outcomes

Conservation across human-dominated landscapes requires an understanding of the social and ecological factors driving outcomes. Studies that link conservation outcomes to social and ecological factors have examined temporally static patterns. However, there may be different social and ecological processes driving increases and decreases in conservation outcomes that can only be revealed through temporal analyses. Through a case study of the invasion of Falcataria moluccana in Hawaii, we examined the association of social factors with increases and decreases in invader distributions over time and space. Over 7 years, rates of invader decrease varied substantially (66-100%) relative to social factors, such as building value, whether land was privately or publically owned, and primary residence by a homeowner, whereas rates of increase varied only slightly (<0.1-3.6%) relative to such factors. These findings suggest that links between social factors and invasion in the study system may be driven more by landowners controlling existing invasive species, rather than by landowners preventing the spread of invasive species. We suggest that spatially explicit, time-dependent analyses provide a more nuanced understanding of the way social factors influence conservation outcomes. Such an understanding can help managers develop outreach programs and policies targeted at different types of landowners in human-dominated landscapes.

Beyond “Us and Them”: Why Do Landowners Disagree About Local Water Pollution?

Collaborative watershed governance (CWG) is one strategy to address nonpoint source water pollution. While many collaborative watershed arrangements unfold in local settings, institutional analyses of CWG often do not consider landowners perceive intracommunity tensions about water pollution. We consider how diverse landowners attribute water pollution to agricultural and residential sources, and how these causal attributions may underpin perceived intracommunity tensions. We use survey data (n = 373) from the Owasco Lake watershed of central New York to examine water quality perceptions, concerns, and beliefs across year-round lakeshore, seasonal lakeshore, off shore residential, and agricultural landowners. Each type of landowner has a unique process through which water pollution causal attributions develop. Perceived intracommunity differences are more pronounced for non-farming landowners who blame agriculture for water pollution. With a better understanding of how landowners perceive the views of one another, watershed managers can tailor local communication efforts to emphasize shared views.

Land use and dispersal influence mortality in white‐tailed deer

ABSTRACTRestoring male age structure in white‐tailed deer populations has become an important objective for many state agencies aimed at improving herd dynamics. Limiting mortality in the yearling (1–2 yr old) age class is a primary consideration, and regional differences in climate, habitat characteristics, hunting regulations, and hunter behavior complicate the understanding of how specific factors influence the risk of mortality. We used Cox proportional hazard modeling to determine the effects of body size, mean distance to road, dispersal behaviors, use of forested land, and use of land open to public hunting on the risk of mortality for a population of radio‐collared, yearling males (n= 76) in Sussex County, Delaware, USA. Annual survival averaged 0.55 (95% CI = 0.45–0.68), with harvest accounting for 79% (26/33) of all mortalities. Measurements of body size (chest girth, shoulder height, and total length; cm) influenced dispersal probability but not dispersal distance. The best approximating model for mortality risk included a covariate for landownership, whereby mortality risk increased on public land. Among males who dispersed, longer‐distance dispersal was associated with reduced mortality, which contradicts previous research describing dispersal as a high‐risk behavior. The effect of landownership on mortality risk has not been previously identified, especially when regulations regarding harvest of yearling males are similar between landownership types. We observed annual survival rates of 0.69 (95% CI = 0.57–0.82) for deer apparently using private land exclusively during the hunting season, and 0.20 (95% CI = 0.11–0.48) for deer that used public land during the hunting season. Survival rates on private land were comparable to those of other regions actively managing male age structure. These results suggest survival of yearling males in the region is influenced by hunter harvest and the risks associated with dispersal may be minimal in areas where harvest pressure is low, although hunter harvest on public land may limit male age structure on a localized scale. © The Wildlife Society, 2019

Spatially balanced sampling and ground‐level imagery for vegetation monitoring on reclaimed well pads

Land reclamation associated with natural gas development has become increasingly important to mitigate land surface disturbance in western North America. Since well pads occur on sites with multiple land use and ownership, the progress and outcomes of these efforts are of interest to multiple stakeholders including industry, practitioners and consultants, regulatory agents, private landowners, and the scientific community. Reclamation success criteria often vary within, and among, government agencies and across land ownership type. Typically, reclamation success of a well pad is judged by comparing vegetation cover from a single transect on the pad to a single transect in an adjacent reference site and data are collected by a large number of technicians with various field monitoring skills. We utilized “SamplePoint” image analysis software and a spatially balanced sampling design, called balanced acceptance sampling, to demonstrate how spatially explicit quantitative data can be used to determine if sites are meeting various reclamation success criteria and used chi‐square tests to show how sites in vegetation percent cover differ from a statistical standpoint. This method collects field data faster than traditional methods. We demonstrate how quantitative and spatially explicit data can be utilized by multiple stakeholders, how it can improve upon current reference site selection, how it can satisfy reclamation monitoring requirements for multiple regulatory agencies, how it may help improve future seed mix selection, and discuss how it may reduce costs for operations responsible for reclamation and how it may reduce observer bias.

How willing are different types of landowner to supply hardwood timber residues for bioenergy?

Among bioenergy feedstocks, timber and crop residues offer low marginal cost of production and low risk of indirect land use change that can boost greenhouse gas emissions. The potential economic supply depends on the willingness of producers to make residues available. Previous studies show that willingness to supply annual crop residues depends upon prices, attitudes toward bioenergy, biophysical setting, and demographic traits. For timber residues, a smaller literature on non-industrial private forest owners found similar results, but little is published about what drives the availability of timber residues from large public and commercial forests.Combining survey data on small-scale forest owners with interview data on managers of large-scale commercial, public and conservancy-owned forests, we find that willingness to provide timber residues varies by landowner type. At prices of $4-11 Mg−1, most commercial forest managers are willing to permit residue removal at timber harvest. At higher prices of $13-26 Mg−1, up to half of non-industrial private forest owners are also willing. However, among managers of large-scale public and conservancy forests, environmental conservation rules and/or insufficient motivation largely prevent the removal of timber residues at harvest. Future projections of timber residue supply should explicitly account for differences in the willingness of each type of forestland owner to supply residues as a bioenergy feedstock.

Identification of hotspots of at-risk terrestrial vertebrate species in the south-central Great Plains of North America: A tool to inform and address regional-scale conservation

Biodiversity is being lost at an unprecedented rate, and resources for conservation efforts are limited. This is particularly problematic in the Great Plains of North America, where land-cover conversion for agriculture and energy production has reduced habitat for many species. In the U.S. portion of the Great Plains, a growing human population and a concomitant increasing need for food, fiber, and energy have caused landscape transformations that have resulted in over 700 vertebrate species currently being listed by state and federal conservation agencies as being at-risk in this region. Conservation efforts for such a large number of species will be most efficient when applied to areas with large numbers of these species, but such areas have never before been identified. We overlaid range maps created by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Gap Analysis Program for terrestrial vertebrate species to identify hotspots of high concentrations of U.S. state-defined Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN; species that have identified as being rare or otherwise vulnerable enough to warrant conservation action in a given state) in the short- and mixed-grass prairie ecoregions of the southern and central Great Plains of the United States. We identified hotspots for species currently listed as SGCN as well as those pending designation, and a combined (current and pending) group. We then used data from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Protected Areas Database on land ownership and from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service on land use/land cover to quantify the types of land ownership and land use/land cover types in hotspots to give land managers necessary information to address conservation of at-risk species in the Great Plains. Sufficient data were present for examination of 289 at-risk terrestrial vertebrate species. Hotspots of these species were located mostly on state- or federally-managed land in eastern New Mexico, Colorado, and west Texas. The current hottest hotspots were associated with areas with more natural/less anthropogenic forms of land use/land cover; areas with the lowest numbers of SGCNs had proportionately more cropland and less grassland than did hotspots. Identifying regional hotspots of at-risk biodiversity, and describing land use/land cover features associated with such areas, offers an opportunity to take a multi-species approach in more precisely establishing areas of conservation concern in the U.S.

Do financial incentives motivate conservation on private land?

AbstractFinancial incentives may aid in conservation if they broaden the numbers and types of landowners who engage in protection and conservation management on private land. We examined the hypotheses that financial incentives (1) encourage participation of people with lower autonomous motivation towards conservation and lower self-transcendence (i.e. benevolence and universalism) values compared to participants in similar programmes without such incentives; (2) enable more on-ground works and activities; and (3) enhance feelings of competence and autonomy with respect to conservation actions. We surveyed 193 landowners in private land conservation programmes in Tasmania, only some of whom had received financial incentives. All of these landowners had high self-transcendence values, and autonomous motivation towards the environment. Owners of large properties and participants with higher self-enhancement values, lower self-transcendence values and lower autonomous motivation towards the environment were slightly more likely to engage in incentive programmes. However, people who received funding did not report more conservation actions than people in programmes without incentives. Owners of larger properties receiving incentives reported fewer conservation actions. Thus financial incentives probably recruited a few into nature conservation who may not have otherwise engaged, but did not result in a more intensive level of conservation management. Our results caution against the blanket-use of incentives amongst landowners who may already have values and motivations consistent with environmental action, and point to the need for further research on the socio-psychological characteristics of landowners, to examine the contextual factors that influence the effects of conservation payments.

Resource selection by GPS-tagged California spotted owls in mixed-ownership forests

The relative contribution of private and public forest to the conservation of species in mixed-ownership landscapes has often been contentious because management goals vary among owners. This tension can be exacerbated by a lack of understanding about how wildlife use habitats managed by different landowners and the relative value of habitats in having different structures, configurations, and management histories. To address this knowledge gap and enhance science-based conservation planning among different ownerships, we analyzed habitat selection by 53 GPS-tagged California spotted owls across multiple temporal scales within mixed-ownership landscapes in the Sierra Nevada. At a fine temporal scale, step-selection function analysis of hourly locations collected by GPS tags suggested that foraging spotted owls selected closed-canopy, larger-tree forest (Quadratic Mean Diameter [QMD] ≥ 33 cm, canopy cover ≥ 60%). Point selection function (PSF) analysis based on single nightly locations suggested that spotted owls selected a broader range of forest conditions including selection of forests having intermediate sized trees and intermediate canopy cover (QMD 28–33 cm, canopy cover ≥ 50%), and the strength of selection for these forest conditions increased in the less frequently used areas of home ranges. The PSF also suggested that spotted owls selected areas with relatively high cover type heterogeneity that included a mix of seral stages, except in the core of their home range where they selected relatively spatially homogenous forests characterized by large trees and closed canopy. Spotted owl home ranges increased in size with increasing elevation and cover type heterogeneity, and decreased in size with forest characterized by intermediate-sized trees. Collectively, these results indicate that landscapes having forest patches characterized by either intermediate or large-sized trees, both with high canopy cover, likely constitute the important foraging habitat for California spotted owls in Sierra Nevada mixed conifer forests. However, selection for any one particular cover type was not sufficiently strong for us to infer selection of individual landownership types, in spite of differences in forest conditions among ownerships. Collectively, our findings suggest that privately-owned lands used in our study may harbor more suitable spotted owl foraging habitat than previously recognized. Finally, given the importance of understanding the relationship between landowner management priorities and the resultant pattern of vegetation on lands with different ownerships, the development of forest management strategies relevant for broad-scale conservation of the Sierra Nevada forest will benefit from effective collaboration between forest managers, landowners, and research organizations.

An analysis of the relationship between turnover and the spacial transformation by transition of the land situations and the type of landownership

An analysis of the relationship between turnover and the spacial transformation by transition of the land situations and the type of landownership

Comparing the Net Benefit of Forestland Access for Big-Game Hunting across Landownership Types in Georgia, USA

Comparing the Net Benefit of Forestland Access for Big-Game Hunting across Landownership Types in Georgia, USA

Impact of sharecropping on rice productivity in some areas of Khulna district

The study reveals the effect of sharecropping on rice productivity in some selected areas of Khulna District in the South-West region of Bangladesh. Access to land for the landless farmer is governed by informal land tenure arrangement, which in turn affects the productivity of the rice farm. In exploring the debate on sharecropping and farm efficiency, the present study has been conducted to assess the effect of sharecropping on rice productivity. During June 2014, a field survey was conducted by using a semi-structured questionnaire in two villages of Khulna District where sharecropping is one of the dominant land tenure arrangements in rice farming. A Cobb-Douglas production function estimation showed that type of land ownership, use of fertilizers, human labor, and modern variety (MV) including hybrid seed and high yielding varieties (HYVs) of seed had the positive and significant influence on rice production. There was a significant mean difference between the sharecroppers and the owner farmers regarding their volume of rice production. The production volume of the owner farmers was significantly higher by around 781 kg ha-1. The study result from the production function revealed that on an average owner farmers’ output was significantly higher by 10% than that of the sharecroppers. The study also observed that higher land rent in form of a fixed amount of cash or a higher crop share demotivated the sharecroppers to supply the optimum level of input and to use the land intensively. The result implied that the sharecroppers are inefficient compared to the landowners. Therefore, it is recommended that sharing an equitable production cost and a justifiable crop sharing structure might be the better options to motivate the sharecropper to become more efficient concerning their volume of production.Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 43(3): 417-430, September 2018

Ownership Changes and Harvesting Patterns Associated with the Forest Products Industry in West-Central Alabama from 1984 to 2014

Since the beginning of the 1980s, vertically integrated forest products companies have divested their forestland with much of the new ownership being real estate investment trusts (REITs) and timberland investment management organizations (TIMOs). These new landowners and their associated behavior of intensive timber management and higher and better use conversion has given rise to issues such as land-use change, fragmentation, and conservation. To better gauge harvesting patterns and ownership changes associated with the divestment of forestland by forest industry and the arrival of TIMOs and REITs on the forested landscape, eleven Landsat scenes were used to detect harvest activity within the Alabama counties of Bibb, Hale, Pickens, and Tuscaloosa from 1984 to 2014. Detected harvesting activity was paired with county parcel data and then classified based on landowner type: REITs, TIMOs, forest product industry, government, and non-industrial private forest (NIPF) landowners. Overall harvest trends showed a decrease in harvest rates from 1984 to 2005 with a slight increase in harvest rates after 2005. Per scene interval, acres harvested were highly variable for NIPF and relatively stable for forest industry during this time. Government ownership maintained relatively low and stable harvesting behavior throughout the study period. Acres harvested by REITs was relatively low. TIMOs showed an ever increasing rate of harvest within the study area until the last scene interval (2011-2014).

Determinants of farmers use of farm hygiene practices in preventing and controlling poultry diseases in Lagos State, Nigeria

This study assessed factors that determine farm hygiene practices towards preventing and controlling poultry diseases among poultry entrepreneurs in Lagos State, Nigeria. Structured questionnaire was used to obtain data from 148 respondents selected using multistage sampling technique. Results show that respondents’ mean age was 48.5years, majority (68.2%) were male, 95.3% were married, 59.5% had secondary education and mean years of farming experience was 18.8years. All the respondents sourced information on hygiene practices from extension agents, family, friends and cooperatives. Electronic media and prints were also used by 96.6%, 47.9%, respectively. The majority (81.8%) of the respondents operate on a government owned land while 10.1% operate on personal land. Majority (77%) periodically clean their poultry pen, 72.9% agreed that quarantine services is of necessity, 80.4% periodically administer vaccines and drugs to prevent diseases in their poultry farms. More so, 98.7% disinfect poultry kits/equipment after use and 91.9% agreed that raw/uncooked poultry products are not good for consumption. Test of significance indicated that respondents’ farm hygiene practices was related to educational level (χ2=7.96, P≤.05), years of farming experience (β=-0.87, P≤.05), sources of information (r=-0.21, P≤.05), land ownership type (r=-0.22, P≤.05). It was recommended that public enlightenment and campaign should be strengthened to generally enlighten the public and poultry entrepreneurs specifically towards positive attitudes and handling of poultry products through routine management like regular sanitation, periodic vaccination, poultry house entrance’ dips, drug administration and quarantine services towards developing the poultry enterprise. Keywords: Farm hygiene practices, Poultry Entrepreneurs, Lagos State

Effects of dual land ownerships and different land lease terms on industrial land use efficiency in Wuxi City, East China

In the current Chinese land administration system, two types of land ownership including state and collective ownership coexist and the industrial land use rights can be transferred between different land lease terms. Previous studies found the significant relationship between land ownerships and lease terms with agriculture land use efficiency, but it is still unclear for the industrial land use efficiency. This study researched the effects of China's dual land ownerships and land lease terms on rural town industrial land use efficiency. Questionnaires of 294 industrial enterprises in Hudai, Qianqiao, and Xibei in Wuxi City, East China, were studied using two multiple linear regression models. The results showed that collective land with incomplete property rights caused land use inefficiency of lower industrial enterprises' output per hectare of land. The industrial enterprises' outputs per hectare from collective land were 2.16 million Yuan (0.31 million US dollar) and 2.06 million Yuan (0.30 million US dollar) less than those from state land in these two models, respectively. Different land lease terms negatively correlated with the use efficiency of rural industrial land. The outputs per hectare of industrial enterprises using the long-term lease were 1.30 million Yuan (0.19 million US dollar) less than those using the short-term lease in model 2. Our results highlight the importance of the integrated urban-rural land system and tailored lease terms of industrial land to increase the utilization efficiency of industrial land.

Land ownership and 20th century changes to forest structure in California

Forests in California have changed dramatically during the 20th century. Shifts in forest structure including densification, declines in large trees and tree basal area have altered the function, productivity, and resilience of modern day forests. Attributing these changes to specific drivers is increasingly important for effective management of healthy and productive forests. Previous studies focus on climatic (temperature, precipitation, climatic water deficit), disturbance (fire), geomorphological (topography, soil types), and anthropogenic (logging, fire suppression) drivers, but few studies evaluate large scale change in forest structure across land ownership type. In this paper, we investigate 20th century changes to forest structure across six land ownership classes in California. We compare historical and contemporary forest structural data and find that declines in large trees and increases in forest density are consistent across the state. This pattern is most pronounced on private timberlands, which experience up to 400% regional increases in small tree (<10.2 cm) density since 1930. All land ownership classes experience declines in large trees, while private timberlands, national parks and wilderness areas experience the most extreme change with an average loss of over 83% and 71% respectively. We conclude that understanding patterns of change across land ownership is essential for targeting federal, state, and locally specific policies that foster healthy and resilient forests for the future.