Characterizing Non-Industrial Private Forest Landowners' Forest Management Engagement and Advice Sources

Abstract

Non-industrial private forestland (NIPF) owners have options for engagement by following management strategies that reduce wildfire risk on their forestlands. Forest management engagement is a broad term with underlying categories and management implications. To better understand these categories, we examine interview data on the engagement of forest landowners from a case study of private forestland owner perspectives in northeast Oregon, USA. NIPF landowners outline two types of forest management engagement, one for property and one for community-focused forestland management. NIPF owners describe actions for engagement in public forestland management and how these actions differ from engagement in private management. Additionally, NIPF owners establish barriers to engagement in both public and private forestland management. Our findings can be used to better identify unengaged private forestland owners in the U.S. West, informing the design and implementation of extension and outreach for NIPF owners.

Keywords:

• Advice sources
• engagement
• forest management
• forest ownership
• Inland Northwest
• working landscapes

Acknowledgments

This work is part of the ongoing Communities and Forests in Oregon (CAFOR, www.cafor.weebly.com) project, and supported by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) (2010-67023-21705). Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of NIFA or USDA. This study complies with US law and is approved by the Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research at University of Colorado Boulder and University of New Hampshire. We appreciate the ongoing partnership with Paul T. Oester at Oregon State University College of Forestry Extension. This manuscript also benefitted from insightful conversations with Jesse B. Abrams, Kristy Athens, Emily Jane Davis, Bruce Dunn, James Henson, Kenneth M. Johnson, Forrest R. Stevens.