Changing decisions in a changing landscape: How might forest owners in an urbanizing region respond to emerging bioenergy markets?

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe global bioenergy market has considerable impacts on local land use patterns, including landscapes in the Southeastern United States where increased demand for bioenergy feedstocks in the form of woody biomass is likely to affect the management and availability of forest resources. Despite extensive research investigating the productivity and impacts of different bioenergy feedstocks, relatively few studies have assessed the preferences of private landowners, who control the majority of forests in the eastern U.S., to harvest biomass for the bioenergy market. To better understand contingent behaviors given emerging biomass markets, we administered a stated preference experiment to private forest owners in the rapidly urbanizing Charlotte Metropolitan region. Respondents indicated their preferences for harvesting woody biomass under a set of hypothetical market-based scenarios with varying forest management plans and levels of economic return. Our analytical framework also incorporated data from a previously-administered revealed preference survey and spatially-explicit remote sensing data, enabling us to analyze how individuals' ownership characteristics, their emotional connection the forests they manage, and the spatial patterns of nearby land uses, influence willingness to grow bioenergy feedstocks. We found conditional support for feedstock production, even among woodland owners with no history of active management. Landowners preferred higher economic returns for each management plan. However low-intensity harvest options were always preferred to more intensive management alternatives regardless of economic return, suggesting that these landowners may be more strongly motivated by aesthetic or quality-of-life concerns than feedstock revenues. Our analysis indicated preferences were dependent upon individual and environmental characteristics, with younger, more rural landowners significantly more interested in growing feedstocks relative to their older and more urban counterparts. While this study focuses on one small sample of urban forest owners, our results do suggest that policy makers and resource managers can better inform stand-level decision-making by understanding how feedstock production preferences vary across populations.Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Payments for Carbon Sequestration to Alleviate Development Pressure in a Rapidly Urbanizing Region

“…With these criteria satisfied, a single sense of place factor score was calculated for inclusion in the mixed-effects logistic regression model described below. This method is identical to that used in previous analyses of these data (Dorning et al 2015b). …”

“…Urban development throughout the region has come at the expense of forest and agricultural lands, and growth projections for the region suggest more than 210,000 ha of forested and agricultural land will be converted to development by the year 2030 if observed trends between 1996 and 2006 continue (Meentemeyer et al 2013). The majority of forested land throughout the region is owned by nonindustrial private forest owners, and these holdings tend to be relatively small (Ͻ10 ha), which limits forest owners' ability to financially benefit from either harvesting timber or biomass (Dorning et al 2015a, Dorning et al 2015b. Past research in the region suggests that forest owners are concerned with rising property taxes and the lack of tax-relief policies focused on conserving forested lands; this concern is compounded by strong emotional and psychological ties to the region's culturally rich landscapes (BenDor et al 2014).…”

Payments for Carbon Sequestration to Alleviate Development Pressure in a Rapidly Urbanizing Region

“…With these 298 criteria satisfied, a single sense of place factor score was calculated for inclusion in the mixed 299 effects logistic regression model described below. This method is identical to that used in 300 previous analyses of these data (Dorning, Smith, et al, 2015). 301…”

“…Urban development throughout the region has come at the expense of forest and 196 agricultural lands, and growth projections for the region suggest more than 210,000 ha of 197 forested and agricultural land will be converted to development by the year 2030 if observed 198 trends between 1996 and 2006 continue (Meentemeyer et al 2013). The majority of forested land 199 throughout the region is owned by non-industrial private forest owners, and these holdings tend 200 to be relatively small (< 10 ha), which limits forest owners' ability to financially benefit from 201 either harvesting timber or biomass (Dorning, Smith, et al 2015). Past research in the region 202 suggests forest owners are concerned with rising property taxes and the lack of tax-relief policies 203 focused on conserving forested lands; this concern is compounded by strong emotional and 204 psychological ties to the region's culturally rich landscapes (BenDor et al 2014 hectares) and have a forest management plan in place that allows timber harvesting.…”

Sustainability Assessment of Bioenergy from a Global Perspective: A Review

“…The U.S. accounts for a relatively large proportion of bioenergy sustainability assessment in North American regions (e.g., [46][47][48][49]), whereas merely one study concentrates on Canada, with the emphasis on marginal land use. A most possible reason is that America actually has sufficient corn-based bioenergy supply compared with its Canada counterpart; and according to Jin and Sutherland [46], from 2000 to 2014, the U.S. bioenergy consumption per capita increased by 38.7%, which roughly proves that bioenergy plays an important part in the country's economic growth.…”