Abstract
The number of family forest owners in the USA has increased continuously in recent decades, and the fate of much of US forests lies in the hands of this diverse and dynamic group of people. The National Woodland Owner Survey (NWOS) is a recurring and comprehensive national survey of US private forest owners, including family forest owners. The NWOS includes an open-ended question that explores forest owners’ motivations and values related to their woodland. The open-ended question format allows respondents to express their own frame of reference in their own words, rather than respond to predetermined, fixed-response categories of motivations. This paper describes the system of values and motivations that emerged from analysis of responses to the open-ended question, and compares these findings to a closed-ended, fixed-response question also included in the NWOS. Diverse and multidimensional motives were expressed by respondents. Eight broad categories and 37 sub-categories of motives and values emerged from analysis of the open-ended question. The fixed categories of the closed-ended question failed to capture many dimensions of forest owner motivations. A more detailed, qualitative understanding of forest owner motivations and values is needed to provide extension foresters and others who work with family forest owners important insights and help guide public policy related to private forestland. Open-ended survey questions can help provide such understanding.
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Notes
In recent years, the definition of ecosystem services has expanded to include all direct and indirect benefits and values of the environment (e.g. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005). A narrower approach to defining ecosystem services has been taken in this study, focusing on tangible ecological benefits.
In analyzing the closed-ended NWOS question, respondents who rate all of the fixed response categories as low importance are assigned the label ‘Incidental Ownership’.
The 12 fixed response categories of the closed-ended question were collapsed into the eight broad categories used in this study as follows: Investment and Income is the sum of the fixed responses ‘For land investment,’ For production of sawlogs, pulpwood or other timber products,’ ‘For production of firewood or biofuel (energy),’ and ‘For cultivation/collection of non-timber forest products’; Recreation is the sum of ‘For hunting or fishing’ and ‘For recreation other than hunting or fishing’; Home is the sum of ‘Part of my home or vacation home’ and ‘For privacy’; Farm and Ranch is ‘Part of farm or ranch’; Family is ‘To pass land on to my children or other heirs’; Environment is ‘To protect nature and biologic diversity’; Non-instrumental is ‘To enjoy beauty or scenery’; and Incidental Ownership did not have an equivalent category among the fixed responses.
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The authors thank Shorna Broussard Allred, Paige Fischer, Lynne Westphal, and two anonymous reviewers for many helpful comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper.
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Bengston, D.N., Asah, S.T. & Butler, B.J. The Diverse Values and Motivations of Family Forest Owners in the United States: An Analysis of an Open-ended Question in the National Woodland Owner Survey. Small-scale Forestry 10, 339–355 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-010-9152-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-010-9152-9