Factors Motivating Forest Conservation Easement Adoption in Wisconsin's Northwoods

Abstract

The diversity of ownership of forestlands in the Northwoods Region and the absence of strong local land use regulations represent critical barriers to protecting the health of natural resources. Seen by policymakers as a viable land protection strategy, conservation easements represent a voluntary alternative to land use regulation for forest land conservation. However, landowner adoption for privately owned forest lands remains low in Wisconsin despite more than 16 million acres nationally held by nonprofit state, local, and national land trust organizations. Despite these successes, resistance exists from non-industrial private forest landowners to the adoption of conservation easements. This study explores these barriers using data collected from mail survey responses from 470 forest landowners in Wisconsin's Northwoods. A typology of landowners is developed based on attitudes toward the adoption of conservation easements, revealing that current interest among forest landowners is below 20%, and land trusts currently lack standing as trusted partners in forest land management.

Keywords:

• Conservation easements
• forest conversion and parcelization
• landowner typologies

Acknowledgments

This work was made possible by support from the USDA/CSREES McIntire-Stennis Cooperative Forestry Research Program and supported by staff at the University of Wisconsin-Extension Center for Land Use Education. Further, the research described in this manuscript began as part of Chapter 3 of a thesis project titled “The role of private forest landowners in protecting vulnerable ecosystems in Wisconsin's Northwoods” (Wadleigh 2017).