Intentions of family forest owners in north-central Indiana
Abstract
The extent of forest cover across the landscape of north-central Indiana, which is dominated by private ownership, largely reflects the individual decisions of family forest owners. Given the hypothesis that behavioral intentions are shaped by an individual's attitudes, norms, and perceived behavioral control, Ajzen's theory of planned behavior was used as a framework for exploring the relative influence of these three suites of potential predictors for a variety of intentions related to one's land. Cluster analysis of 348 responses to a mail questionnaire distributed to family forest owners in north-central Indiana revealed three distinct landowner types: (i) Forest Managers who attributed importance to diverse values with regard to owning their forest and were most likely to have harvested trees from their land in the past; (ii) New Forest Owners who owned their properties for the least amount of time and attributed importance to all ownership motivations with the exception of producing timber; and (iii) Passive Forest Owners who owned the smallest forested acreages and attributed importance to none of the ownership motivations operationalized in this research with the exception of enjoying scenery. Few differences emerged among landowner types in their conception of forest management, which comprised four dimensions related to (i) economic benefits, (ii) lifestyle benefits, (iii) property maintenance, and (iv) rural land practices. Intentions clustered into distinct groupings which fit the models well. Specifically, based on responses provided by 735 family forest owners in urbanizing regions of north-central Indiana, intentions to plant trees increased with valuing forest for lifestyle and conservation purposes, holding positive attitudes toward planting for amenity enhancement and conservation purposes, feeling support from others to do so, and having space available on their property. Intentions to harvest trees increased with valuing forest for consumptive purposes, holding positive attitudes toward harvesting for recreation and conservation as well as for development and production, feeling support from others to do so, and having the necessary resources and merchantable trees. Finally, intentions to work with neighboring landowners increased with valuing forest for consumptive purposes, holding positive attitudes toward working with neighboring landowners, feeling support from others to do so, and believing that they could. Findings are compared to those documented in the existing literature and their implications for natural resource management are discussed.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Broussard, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Forestry|Agricultural economics|Ecology|Environmental science
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