The future of forests: it's who and what you know.

LTER's Strategic Research Initiative on Integrative Science for Society and the Environment (ISSE; U.S. LTER 2007) was premised on 5 General Research questions, two of which focus on the role of humans and behaviors: How do changes in ecosystem services feed back to alter human behavior? and, Which human actions influence the frequency, magnitude, and form of human impacts across ecosystems, and what determines these human actions? Landowners are particularly important human change agents in privately dominated forest landscapes, since decisions about their land and resulting behaviors strongly influence land use and the future of ecosystem services. The Conservation Awareness Index (CAI; Van Fleet et al 2012) is a simple 16-question survey instrument designed to assess private landowner knowledge and experience with four specific actions that can directly influence the future of their land and its contribution to ecosystem service productivity: timber harvest; participation in a current-use property taxation program; application of a conservation easement; and estate planning. We used CAI in a mail survey to 1,200 private woodland owners of 10 acres or greater in 20 communities along two urban: rural gradients that radiate from Boston. Our research objective was to characterize the extent to which landowners across the gradient from urban to rural were aware of their conservation options. Are landowners as change agents making decisions reactively, uninformed of their alternatives, or are they making fully informed of their choices when faced with a decision? Does landowner conservation awareness vary across an urban: rural gradient?

Our results suggest that overall owner awareness of conservation alternatives is poor, and may not vary appreciably across urban: rural gradients, at least among those who own at least 10 acres. Awareness of conservation restrictions and estate planning appears higher in the urbanized ends of the urban: rural gradients, where real estate values are appreciably higher, and development pressure is greater. Ownership goals, however, appear to be oriented towards development under these circumstances. These results suggest the need for increased and improved landowner outreach intervention to improve awareness and reduce reactive, uninformed decisions across the urban: rural gradient. Future research needs to more directly link and test the hypothesis that conservation awareness results in conservation behaviors of owners.

1. Boston University, Department of Geography and Environment
2. University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Environmental Conservation and Harvard Forest
3. University of Maryland Baltimore County
4. Harvard Forest Research Experience for Undergraduates
5. Cornell University

Van Fleet, T.E., D.B Kittredge, B.J Butler, and P. Catanzaro. 2012. Re-imagining private forest conservation: Estimating landowner awareness and their preparedness to act with the Conservation Awareness Index. Journal of Forestry. 110 (4): 207-215.

U.S. Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTER). 2007. The Decadal Plan for LTER: Integrative Science for Society and the Environment. LTER Network Office Publication Series No. 24, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 154 pages.

Kittredge D.B.² , A. Short, L. Bartock, E. Schnur, S.M. Raciti, and L.R. Hutyra