Landowner Acceptability of Silvicultural Treatments to Restore an Open Forest Landscape

Abstract

This study examined the acceptability of different silvicultural treatments to restore pine barrens, an open, fire-dependent forest landscape type globally imperiled across the northern Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada. In an online survey, we asked family-forest owners (N = 466) in Northeastern Wisconsin about the acceptability of pine barrens restoration treatments through ratings of both verbal descriptions and visual scenarios. An informational statement about pine barrens restoration purposes and goals preceded ratings for half the sample. Across the entire sample, acceptability ratings for eleven verbally-described treatments generally declined as treatments became more intensive, creating greater openness on the landscape. Information recipients found two groups of treatments identified by factor analysis (selective openings, fire) more acceptable than non-recipients, and cluster analysis identified four respondent subgroups, each with varying levels of acceptability. The respondents also rated the acceptability of visual scenarios, with treatment attribute combinations portraying a range of likely restoration alternatives. While we generally found correspondence between verbal and visual acceptability ratings across the entire sample, the groups distinguished by their verbal acceptability ratings did not substantially differ in how they rated the acceptability of the visual scenarios. Implications are discussed for designing and communicating the purpose and value of restoration treatments to stakeholder groups.

The Consequential Role of Aesthetics in Forest Fuels Reduction Propensities: Diverse Landowners’ Attitudes and Responses to Project Types, Risks, Costs, and Habitat Benefits

“…The second queried whether the respondent had ever evacuated anywhere they had been due to a wildfire threat (WildfireEvacuate), with larger codes corresponding to greater implied levels of perceived vulnerability. This variable was not simplified for graphical analysis because of the small (but predictive) number of respondents (18) who had experienced evacuation. The first two items (Figure 5) queried aspects of perceived wildfire vulnerability and agency against it because this is an important factor [32].…”

“…We are aware of no other published studies of private landowners' propensities to perform specific fuels reduction project types in particular forests they own, so there are no previous results for direct comparison to this study, although generic types of fuels reduction attributes across many forest types have been studied [17]. Public acceptance of generally described extensive fuels reduction programs on local public lands, regions, or large areas of private industrial forests, have been studied [5,14,15,[18][19][20][21][22]. For such public projects, the need for wildfire risk reduction is usually an established policy objective and is subject to public contention but not obviation.…”

Effects of stand types on recreational preferences of society in the Sub-Alpine Zone, northern Turkey

“…Compared to clearcutting method, the visual effects following shelter-wood and selection methods are usually considered more favorable for recreational purposes (Lazdane et al 2013). Moreover, the visual effects of trees left individually or in groups on silviculturally treated sites would be different (Arnberger et al 2022). People who are interested in recreational activities in forested areas would usually prefer mature stands due to their aesthetic concerns (Galliano and Loeffler 2000;Zhou et al 2019).…”

Sustainable Forest, Beautiful Forest, Well-Managed Forest: Attitudes towards Land Management and Their Influence on the Perception of a Mediterranean Agroforestry Landscape

“…The landscape thus lacks one of the key components to achieve adequate management: trust in the manager. Substantial prior research has proven the importance of confidence in agency managers for the successful implementation of any forest management program, as well as for the acceptance or valuation of landscape conditions [18,24,25,[44][45][46]. In the case study, the public forest management lacks the components that [23] framed to achieve a public-agency relationship based on trust, which are competence, credibility, and consensual values.…”