(Not) Counting Trees

more below graphic (click above)...

This is the fourth in a series of posts on findings from a study of Managed Forest Law (MFL) participants. For other posts, click the tag, "MFL-stats." If you'd like to receive an e-mail when new posts are available, please contact me.

Intrinsic reasons for landownership (e.g., solitude, retreat, privacy, and close to nature) rated* high for all respondents. Notable differences by size category** were for hunting and income from forest products. In general, this results are similar to those from other landowner studies. This suggests that MFL participants are similar to non-MFL landowners.

Perhaps the most interesting difference is that for hunting. Given the importance of hunting to the rural landscape, those with smaller parcels don't appear to fit what one might typically expect. Indeed, quiet recreation appears to be slightly more important for folks in this group.

*Importance was measured on a 4-point scale (1 = “Not at all important”, 2 = “Somewhat important”, 3 = “Very important”, and 4 = “Extremely Important”).
**The study design relies on a sampling from three ownership size categories within the MFL: small (10-80 ac), medium (81-160 ac), and large (161-640 ac). For these two questions, the total sample size is ~ 1,600. Distribution across size categories is small ~1/5, and medium and large was ~2/5 each.