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Highlights of the national evaluation of the Forest Stewardship Planning Program

Informally Refereed

Abstract

In 1998 and 1999, a nationwide random sample of 1238 nonindustrial private (NIPF) landowners with approved multiple resource Forest Stewardship Plans were interviewed to determine if this program is meeting its Congressional mandate of promoting sustainable management of forest resources on NIPF ownerships. It was found that two-thirds of program participants had never before received professional assistance in managing their lands; a large majority had begun to implement their plans; over one-half were undertaking practices that were new to them; and a majority of owners had adopted and were implementing multi-purpose practices. Over 90 percent of the participants found their plans easy or very easy to understand, and 94 percent said they would recommend FSP to other landowners. Forest plans alone fostered improvements in stewardship behavior, but regression analysis showed that owners were significantly more likely to implement new stewardship practices, to increase personal non-reimbursed dollar expenditures, and to manage for multiple resource outputs when they also received follow up planning assistance and cost sharing for practice installation. Recent (post-study) reductions in federal funding for cost share assistance to implement stewardship practices may have a major adverse impact on this program.

Citation

Moulton, R.J.; Esseks, J.D. 2001. Highlights of the national evaluation of the Forest Stewardship Planning Program. Proceedings of the 2000 Southern Forest Economics Workshop. Pages (in press)
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/1797