In the Mainstream: Environmental Attitudes of Mid-South Forest Owners

Abstract

A 1992 telephone survey of households in seven mid-South states provided data for comparing the opinions of NIPF owners with those of the general public. Topics explored included traditional forest management practices, governmental regulation of tree cutting to protect environmental values, and trade-offs between environmental protection, private property rights, and economic development. In each of these areas the views of NIPF owners were found not to differ significantly from those of the general public. A widespread desire for environmental protection tempers views toward forest practices, forest-based economic development, and private property rights. The relationships between NIPF owners' demographic characteristics, ownership activities, and opinions were explored. Study results challenged common assumptions about NIPF owners, questioned the effectiveness of existing forestry education efforts, and argue for a stronger, more explicitly environmental orientation in all forestry activities. South. J. Appl. For. 21(1):37-43.

MCDM methods in strategic planning of forestry on state‐owned lands in Finland: applications and experiences

“…a ainen, 1996;Kuuluvainen et al, 1996, Karppinen, 1998 and elsewhere (e.g. Kreutzwiser and Wright, 1990;Bourke and Luloff, 1994;Bliss et al, 1997). Recently, especially ecological and social sustainability have received much attention.…”

Remote Sensing and Modeling Applications to Wildland Fires

“…Population growth since the middle of the last century has caused increasing urbanization and fragmentation of the forested landscape (Wear, 2002), increasing the size and importance of the WUI. Besides the physical aspects of the WUI, changing demographic profiles and cultural values (Cordell et al, 1998) have altered attitudes towards natural resource management in general (Bliss et al, 1997;Jacobson et al, 2001;Hull and Stewart, 2002) and prescribed burning in particular (Loomis et al, 2001;Duryea and Hermansen, 2002). The density of public roads in the US is 0.65 km/km 2 (0.79 km/km 2 for the contiguous US excluding Alaska and Hawaii) and the average for the southern states is 0.98 km/km 2 (US DOT, 2004).…”

“…More people now live at the interface and the transportation system is expanding, becoming denser and more pervasive (Riitters and Wickham, 2003). In general, Southerners share the same attitudes about the environment as the general population and even small forest landowners are averse to even-aged management practices such as clearcutting and use of herbicides to control competing vegetation (Bliss et al, 1997). The road density in Georgia is 1.22 km/km 2 , higher than the national average; the density in Montana is lower than the national average at 0.29 km/km 2 .…”

Sustaining family forests in rural landscapes: Rationale, challenges, and an illustration from oregon, USA

“…In the Southeast, uncontrolled suburban sprawl is converting thousands of hectares of productive forestland into concentric circles of shopping malls, townhouses, faux antebellum mansions, and congested commuter beltways surrounding every metropolitan area. The US Forest Service has estimated that almost 4.9 M ha of forestland in the Southeastern USA were lost to urban development between 1982and 1997(Forestry Source 2002a. Forest Service researchers anticipate the region could lose an additional 7.7 M ha by 2040, most of it nonindustrial private forestland.…”

“…Many have one foot firmly planted in the culture of forest management, and the other in the mainstream suburban culture. Survey research indicates that they share the same core environmental values as the general American public (Bliss et al 1997). These family forest owners could play a major role in raising public consciousness regarding forestry.…”