Performing Department
FORESTRY
Non Technical Summary
Much is known about the characteristics, attitudes, and behaviors of U.S. family forest owners and agricultural landowners independently. However, little is known about those who own both woodland and farmland, and what, if any, agroforestry and woodland management these Farmer Woodland Owners undertake. Additionally, it is likely that these landowners have a similar predisposition to peer learning and there may be room to expand their participation in conservation programs, but this also needs further research. Investment into bringing agriuclture and natural resource professionals together and coordinating efforts would help small and medium-sized farmers navigate potential strategies for innovative uses of trees and forests within agricultural systems that could provide pathways for improving farm viability and increasing environmental and social benefit. Moreover, pilot work interviewing both producers and professionals supports the need for better connectivity between professionals and access to resources among farmers. A team of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio researchers and Extension professionals propose to survey and interview farmers and natural resource professionals to address these gaps and deliver Peer to Peer Learning Circles, refinement of decision support tools, cost-share for management plans and agroforestry practices, and case study videos to highlight agroforestry and woodland management options as well as emerging market opportunities with co-benefits to Great Lakes ecosystems.
Animal Health Component
95%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
5%
Applied
95%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Measure potential interest and current participation among farmers in emerging carbon and ecosystem service markets, agroforestry practices, and tree-planting, non-timber forest products, and woodland management.We will examine the individual and structural (e.g. policy and program) issues that shape farmers' adoption and willingness to adopt practices and programs for the following:carbon & ecosystem services (biodiversity, water, wildlife) markets that provide greater rewards to farmers who invest in the wooded parts of their property;agroforestry practices and tree-planting (e.g., riparian buffers, silvopasture) to diversify their activities; and finallynon-timber product markets (maple, mushrooms, hunting leasing) to support the use of forests as a vehicle to improve income on farms;woodland management for more traditional timber revenue or other objectives.Understand agricultural and natural resource professionals' perspectives on policies, practices, and opportunities to support more integrated agricultural and farmer woodland and agroforestry management.Under this objective, we seek to understand the implementation of current policy and programs, including unintended consequences, barriers, and opportunities associated with agricultural programs to facilitate use of forests and trees to improve farm viability and farmer quality of life and farm environmental quality. Policies and programs include:Carbon and biodiversity market supportProperty taxesFederal agriculture & forest conservation programsPolicies to support new and beginning farmersPolicies to support land transferThrough these first two objectives, we will intensively engage stakeholders to identify emerging opportunities and new policy tools to overcome barriers and more effectively support farmers' use of woodland and agroforestry practices (e.g., conservation finance). We will examine the effect of local professionals and networks on farmer adoption and willingness to adopt tree and woodland practices.We will simultaneously build innovative Extension programming in parallel with Objective 3, that will iteratively inform research Objectives 1 and 2, and will likewise integrate research results into core Extension activities.Develop and test innovative collaborative extension programs that connect farmers with agricultural and natural resource professionals to support ecosystem service markets, woodland management, agroforestry, and tree-planting practices.Our Extension program will focus on hands-on learning and on-going engagement with landowners and managers (learning circles, peer-to-peer learning; on-farm field days; small/medium sized farm workshops). We will also provide a venue for collaboration and discussion among professionals in agriculture and forestry, via the focus groups, and potentially the field days to shift the focus toward helping farmers develop diversified farms, breaking through the existing silos by land cover and production type.In addition to learning circles, we will assemble, modify, and create decision-support tools and budget support tools for farmers on agroforestry and woodland practices that are currently in use in our focus areas, as identified by Objectives 1 and 2.
Project Methods
Study sitesThis project will take place in three midwestern states - Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin - which all have similar proportions of agricultural and forested lands, and all have a substantial zone of crop-forest interface.Activity 1: Benchmark surveys of farmers with (and without) wooded land.Given the recent National Agroforestry Survey (2022), we will seek to ask questions that complement this national dataset and provides additional detail on practice interest and adoption. The survey instrument will contain the following sections: Information about the farmer(s), information about farm characteristics, land use mix, current management practices (agroforestry, woodland), program participation (including co-benefit markets), knowledge and interest in different practices and program participation, and future plans for their land. The mail survey will follow the Dillman tailored design method with an introductory letter, survey, reminder postcard, second survey for any non-respondents, and a final reminder card and survey (Dillman et al. 2014).Activity 2: Qualitative farmer case studies.We will employ grounded theory design to develop detailed case studies with 5 farmers in each of the three states. We will seek farmers who have trees and/or wooded land and are currently engaging in either agroforestry practices, woodland management, or are participating in ecosystem services markets. Following recruitment of case study participants, there will be an on-farm visit to gather information about the farmer, their land, their practices, the financial picture of their farm enterprise, and their outlook for the future. Data collection will include a structured interview, walking interviews around the property, analysis of land management and financial plans, and video recordings throughout the day. Farmers will be asked to review decision tools (Activity 5) to improve their utility for others. Given recent pilot work in Michigan, this activity will focus on replicating this interview/case study work in Wisconsin and Ohio.Activity 3: Benchmark survey of agricultural and natural resource professionals.We propose to understand the perspectives of agricultural and natural resource professionals working with private landowners through a survey. We propose a mixed mode online survey with paper followup to increase response rates. The survey will be developed in Qualtrics by the postdoctoral researcher, and paper follow-ups will be printed and mailed through University of Wisconsin bulk mail. We propose to survey 750 agricultural, forestry, and natural resources professionals across the three states, assuming a 40% response rate and final sample of 300 respondents (roughly 100 per state). In addition to this representative sample across the three states, we will census all the professionals in our focal counties. This survey will be co-led by PD Huff (MSU), and post-doctoral associate (UW-Madison), with extensive input and oversight from the entire team.Activity 4: Qualitative agricultural and natural resource professional focus groups and interviews.We plan to conduct interviews and focus groups with agricultural and natural resources professionals to better understand the opportunities and barriers they perceive for farms with woodlands, agroforestry, tree planting, and carbon markets. We will interview a total of 40 professionals, including at least 10 from each state and 10 from national organizations. We plan to conduct 3-5 focus groups in each state, building on the findings of focus groups previously conducted in Wisconsin with foresters, agronomists, and other professionals (Mayerfeld et al. 2016). During these focus groups we will ask professionals to share de-identified management plans for further content analysis, in support of Objective 1, Activity 2 management plan analysis. Focus groups and interviews will be led by the UW-Madison team, with data collection supported in each state by the respective Co-PD.Activity 5: Assemble, update and create a suite of farmer decision tools.The USDA, University Extension Programs, non-profit organizations and others have developed numerous tools to support farmer woodland owner decision making. Unfortunately, these resources are housed in disparate locations making the suite of tools difficult to access for a farmer in a particular state and county.We will accomplish this in four distinct phases. First, we will gather all known tools to support decision-making, in tandem with our qualitative interview and focus group work (Activity 4). Co-PDs Matthew Smith, Katherine MacFarland, Stephanie Chizmar, and Kristin Floress will lead assembly, starting with the USFS National Agroforestry Center repository (https://www.fs.usda.gov/nac/resources/tools/index.shtml). We will also ask our Stakeholder Advisory Board to review tools, and identify any missing sources. Second, we will review tools with our case study farmers and survey pre-test farmers to determine if they are useful, clear, and relevant. Third, we will make any changes to the tools to address critiques and concerns identified in phase two.Activity 6: Field DaysEach year, we will host field days at Agricultural Research Stations (ARS), demonstration farms, and partnered working farms. We will start by showcasing existing agroforestry practices at university research stations and established demonstration sites. The first field day will specifically target agriculture and natural resource professionals (NRPs) to build partners in support of future outreach. Field days for farmer woodland owners and practicing agroforesters will include the ag professionals and NRPs. At each field day, we will recruit farmers to join our Agroforestry Learning Circles. As our network builds, we will broaden our field days to case-study locations and Agroforestry Learning Circle participant farms.Activity 7: Peer Learning Circles.Beginning in Year 2, our state extension leads will organize agroforestry learning circles with 6-10 participants from a 1 or 2 county area in the ag-forest interface zones in each state. These Learning Circles will feature peer-peer-pro events hosted on participant farms or other demonstration sites (e.g., case study locations). Event location, frequency, and duration will be negotiated with participants and may vary by state. Each event will feature local forestry and agricultural resource professionals and topical subject matter experts (agroforestry practices, ecosystem service markets,conservation programs) for part of the event. We will encourage peer to peer interaction by including meals at the events and creating social media groups to foster follow-up communication. We anticipate that these circles will meet up to 4 times per year. In Year 3 we will expand the learning circle model to new locations incorporating lessons learned through our formal program evaluation process. We will survey participants from Year 2 asking what changes they'd like to see and what might make them more likely to adopt the practices they learned about. We will also assess the logistics of the Learning Circles (e.g., miles driven, opportunity cost away from the farm) to determine how we can improve in subsequent years.Activity 8: Cost-share for management plans and agroforestry practices. We will work with NGOs in each state (e.g., Michigan Food and Farming Systems) that work with producers, to offer a cost-share on management plans for their wooded land and/or to test new agroforestry practices (e.g., fencing, tree planting). The goal of this activity is two-fold. Firstly, we can collect pre- and post- activity data to understand if these actions lead to desired outcomes such as diversified or increased income streams, improved water quality, and other ecosystem services. Second, we can use these examples as case studies for other producers interested in implementing agroforestry practices, from others who are new to these practices.