LB 7-57 - The influence of United States family forest owners' attitudes towards climate change on the management practices of their forests

Forests are one of humanity's greatest natural resource to mitigate climate change via carbon sequestration, making the conservation of forestland an important factor for a more sustainable future. Successful forest conservation begins with understanding those who make the management decisions for forestland. Of the 333 million ha of forests in the United States, about 109 million ha are owned by family forest owners (FFOs), who operate on individual levels with unique attitudes, values, and motivations. These variables are thought to guide the FFO’s decisions surrounding their forests, especially FFO attitudes towards the environment and the issues it faces such as climate change. However, there are no measures of FFO attitudes towards climate change and how these attitudes impact the management practices FFOs carry out on their forestland. Thus, the goals for this research are (1) to begin measuring U.S. FFO attitudes towards climate change, (2) to determine what factors impact these attitudes, and (3) to determine how they influence the FFO’s management practices. To meet these goals, a survey was mailed to FFOs in Alabama, Oregon, and Wisconsin with questions measuring FFO motivation(s) for owning their forestland, values of their forest, climate change attitudes, and if they are conducting any management practices to sustain their forest. These questions follow the theoretical framework of the Responsible Environmental Behavior Model (Hines et al. 1987) to understand how the different variables influence the willingness of an FFO to carry out practices that ensure their forests’ longevity. From the 585 respondents, our preliminary findings show 58.1% of FFOs believe climate change is occurring, of whom, 45.9% believe it is either caused entirely or mostly by human activity. Of the FFOs who believe climate change is occurring and believe they have a role in addressing climate change, 66.3% have taken action(s) to conserve their forestland in the future. Further analysis will determine the significance of this relationship and the relationship between climate change belief and if FFOs are conducting management practices that help maintain forests. From the findings, there can be a more in-depth understanding of how U.S. FFO climate change attitudes, and other motivating factors, influence the management of their forests. Furthermore, this understanding helps FFOs build more trusting relationships with conservation scientists and government agencies, to bridge the gaps between the public and academia, and better humanity’s fight against climate change.