(Not) Counting Trees

Last week, Ms. Kelly Crosset successfully defended her MS thesis entitled, Landowner Perspectives on Invasive Species Management and Neighbors in Southwest Wisconsin. The abstract is below, and we will be working on developing a paper based on her work, which is quite interesting.

If you'd like to learn more about this study, let me know.

ABSTRACT

Best management practices and timber harvesting: the role of social networks in shaping landowner decisions

Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research (on-line only)

Tricia G. Knoot and Mark Rickenbach

How can social network analysis help managers improve (or at least understand) performance? Rob Cross and Andrew Parker take on this important topic in their scholarly grounded, but highly accessible book, The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations.

I have yet to read it and it is odd that it's only recently appeared on my radar scope (published in 2003), but there is always so much to read.

Schraml, U. 2003. Expectations towards forestry: The influence of personal networks with forest owners. Urban Forest & Urban Greening, 1(2003): 161–170.

ABSTRACT

We will have an exciting opportunity to share our recent findings with an international research audience in Washington D.C. this coming April, as Tricia Knoot was awarded a fellowship through the the International Network of Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS-Net), see this website. As a fellow, she will present our research surrounding landowner decision-making, egocentric networks, and ecosystem services from private lands at the 2010 meetings.

What are the factors that contribute to landowner forest management decisions and resulting ecological outcomes? While we understand that forest owners' values and beliefs can affect how they manage their land, social influences, such as help from a forestry professional, are less well understood.

How are members of landowner cooperative connected? How might we evaluate a landowner cooperative?

Rickenbach, M. 2009. Serving members and reaching others: The performance and social networks of a landowner cooperative, Forest Policy and Economics 11(2009):593-599. [doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2009.08.006]

ABSTRACT