Progress 01/28/05 to 09/30/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: One of the main goals of the project was to determine whether or not a regionally specific and relevant website designed as a source of information for woodland owners would have appeal as an information source, especially for the majority of owners not heretofore reached by conventional methods of technical assistance, cost sharing of management activities, or outreach. In addition, in light of the numerous ecosystem services produced for public benefit at larger landscape scales, could such a site encourage cooperation between owners across boundaries, at spatial scales broader than their own individual ownerships In the final year of the project, we conducted a mail survey of 3,000 private woodland owners : 1,800 in the project's target area of the Deerfield and Westfield River watersheds, and 1,200 in a similar control area in western Massachusetts. One of the goals was to determine if owners had heard of the site (massacorn.net), and their reactions to it. We experienced roughly a 50% response rate, and offered to share survey results with any interested respondent. We developed a 4-page synopsis of research results stemming from the survey analysis, and mailed this to over 200 respondents who requested a summary of results. The product (i.e., massacorn.net) continues to be shared by over 280 unique visitors/month for the past 12 months, and more than 390 overall visits/month for the same period. New visits to the site in the past year represent 68% of the total, and an average individual visit length of 2 minutes 17 seconds, and 3.23 pages per visit. The most significant outputs and dissemination activities for the project overall included multiple direct mailings of post cards to every landowner with more than 10 acres in the target area, making them aware of the site. In addition, we used a variety of other novel marketing techniques to enhance awareness of the site and disseminate news about it, including: special massacorn.net calendars direct mailed to every town hall in the target area; announcements on the local public radio station; posters at every town hall, post office, and other public gathering place; massacorn.net notepads mailed to every town clerk in the target area; paid advertisements run in local newspapers; letters to the editor of local newspapers. Direct mail postcards have proven to be the most effective means to generate interest in and traffic to the site PARTICIPANTS: David Kittredge. Extension Forester and Professor. Jennifer Fish - former graduate student and currently Forester, MA Bureau of Forestry. Lisa Romano - former graduate student and currently restoration ecologist, USDA Forest Service. Amy Nathanson - former graduate student and currently spatial analyst, USDA Forest Service. Kristina Ferrare - former graduate student and currently Extension Specialist, University of NH. Kate Losey - current graduate student. Paul Catanzaro - UMass Extension Forestry Specialist. Charlie Schweik - Associate Professor, UMass Department of Environmental Conservation, UMass. Tom Stevens- Professor, Department of Resource Economics, UMass Amherst. Mike LeVert - former graduate student and currently Maine State Economist Opportunities for training or professional development included workshops conducted in several local school computer labs to instruct landowners how to use the spatial analysis tools that are part of the massacorn.net web site. Contacts included Jay Rasku, North Quabbin Regional Landscape Partnership; Wendy Sweetser, Highland Communities Initiative, The Trustees of Reservations; Jennifer Fish, Forester, MA Bureau of Forestry. TARGET AUDIENCES: We estimate approximately 15,000 private family forest ownerships in the target area of the Westfield and Deerfield River watersheds, and an average ownership size of 24 acres. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: After designing and building the original massacorn.net web site in html and hosting it on our own server, we redesigned the site and developed it in a Content Management System (CMS), with the assistance of a consulting web designer. Maintenance and updating of the site is greatly facilitated by working through a CMS, since it requires no knowledge or training in html (i.e., hypertext markup language). This is especially important since over the course of the project, several different graduate students took on responsibility for monthly updating of content. This is similarly important for practical application of the massacorn.net model in the real world, since small non-governmental organizations that would be appropriate sponsors and organizers of an "acorn" site (e.g., local or regional land trusts, watershed associations) would most likely also not have html / web design and maintenance capacity.
Impacts
We evaluated massacorn.net in the fall of 2009, with a mail survey to 1,800 random woodland owners of greater than 10 acres in the project area (Westfield and Deerfield river basins), and 1,200 random owners in a control watershed nearby. Results indicate: 41% of respondents do not participate in any kind of management program, and 45% have no contact with a forester, conservation organization, or other source of traditional conservation information. 65% of respondents use the internet daily, and 79% use it at least on a weekly basis. 46% use the internet as an important information source for making decisions about their woodland. 66% of respondents live on their land, but a third live elsewhere, sometimes as much as over 100 miles away. 28% of respondents in the target area had visited the massacorn.net site, compared to only 9 percent in the control area, highlighting the importance of marketing. The most effective marketing tool was direct mail postcards: 42% of visitors reported hearing about it in this way. The second most effective way news of the site spread was word-of-mouth. Of those respondents who had visited the site, 66% were not involved in any other form of management or conservation program, implying that the massacorn.net website could be an important source of information for woodland owners not typically reached in more conventional ways. The most popular part of the massacorn.net website is the threaded discussion opportunity, where visitors can pose questions and receive answers from experts, as well as other peer landowners and non-professionals. Importantly, many more people view this threaded discussion page than actually contribute, suggesting the power of people seeking information from peers and non-professionals. The second most popular aspect of the site is the opportunity to view and work with spatial data to make maps and better understand the location of their ownership in a larger watershed context. Over 2 years and nine months, 167 people completed an online survey. 86% of survey participants were woodland owners, and 78% of those own 10 acres or more. When asked "Have you thought about cooperating with other woodland owners as a result of ACORN", 44 % responded affirmatively. Importantly, 33 % of responding landowners had no prior contact with foresters or conservation programs or activities. We conclude that a locally relevant internet site can be effective for providing woodland owners with information. In particular, there is potential to appeal to those previously unreached by more conventional means, and those who are absentee. Visitors to the site were most drawn to the threaded discussion, where they could read the questions, answers, and opinions of others, most of whom were peer non-professionals. Though they did not necessarily post messages themselves, this opportunity to learn about the experiences of others proved to be popular. Lastly, it is not sufficient to merely build an interesting and locally relevant internet site for woodland owners. Active marketing is required to make owners aware of the site, so that when they are in need of information, they will know where to turn.
Publications
- DAmato, A. W., P. Catanzaro, D.T. Damery, D. B. Kittredge, and K. A. Ferrare. 2010. Are family forest owners facing a future where forest management is not enough Journal of Forestry January/February pp. 32-38.
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Progress 10/01/08 to 09/30/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: We maintained, marketed, and monitored a web site for private woodland owners. PARTICIPANTS: Not relevant to this project. TARGET AUDIENCES: private woodland owners PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
We estimate 46% of respondents to a survey about the web site have had no contact with a forester or participated in any management planning program, and are thus "unengaged".
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/07 to 09/30/08
Outputs
OUTPUTS: MassACORN is an interactive web site designed for private woodland owners in the target areas of the Westfield and Deerfield river watersheds. It has online simple mapping and spatial data viewing capacity, contacts for additional information, as well as a threaded discussion tool to allow for exchange of information between owners. We have used a wide variety of marketing approaches to make the target audience of woodland owners aware of its existence and promote its use. Ads have appeared in local and regional newspapers, letters to the editor of similar papers have been published, posters in locally important places have been posted, direct mail postcards to owners of woodland > 10 acres have been sent, town clerks and other local officials and conservation leaders have been notified, and we have placed an announcement on local public radio. We continue to update and maintain the site on a monthly basis, and notify visitors who have subscribed to our monthly email update notice list. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals who worked on the project: David Kittredge, PI; Paul Catanzaro PD; Tom Stevens, PD; Charlie Schweik, PD. Amy Nathanson, graduate student; Jennifer Fish, graduate student. Chris Duncan, technical consultant; Jen Kramer, web design; Beth Armour, web design. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audience is private woodland owners in the Deerfield and Westfield river watersheds of western Massachusetts. MassACORN is a website designed to make them aware of the role their land plays in the larger watershed, and facilitate learning among and between peer landowners. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: We shifted the web site design from hyper text markup language (html) edited in web editing software (Dreamweaver) to a Content Management System (CMS) for ease of editing and improved look/feel of the site. This involved the participation of two web designers and another specialist, but resulted in a greatly improved product.
Impacts
We designed an online survey instrument on MassACORN, and have implemented it between April 2008 and November 2008. We have had a response rate of 1.7% (representing a so-called survey of convenience; i.e., 55 responses out of 3,236). On this basis, we estimate that 82% of respondents are landowners with following characteristics: Most visitors are owners of land in western Massachusetts. Roughly a third of the landowner visitors own more than 50 acres; 70% own 10 or more acres. There is a pretty even distribution of ownership tenure; we're not just catching the new owners, but fully 38% of visiting landowners have held their land for 20 years or more. Most acorn visiting landowners live on their land; few live great distances from their land (i.e., we're not catching an abundance of absentee owners). Although often thought of as an activity or tool for young people, the age distribution of massacorn users tracks well with the overall age distribution known overall for woodland owners - i.e., 2/3rds are over 50 years of age. Interestingly, gender distribution of landowner massacorn visits does not follow the general gender distribution of owners. E.g., Butler 2008 estimates that 81% of family forest decision makers are male, responsible for 84% of family forest land, yet we estimate as many as 40% of massacorn visiting landowners are female. Are women more likely to visit an online site for information about their land, than get it from a male dominated profession These ownership interests in nature, privacy, and scenery are right in line with what we know about owners in general; timber products/income is a distant low level of interest. Direct mail post cards are the most effective way to elevate awareness, though importantly the second most important method is word of mouth. Landowner visitors are favorably impressed with the site. Roughly a third have considered cooperation; Though few claim to have made an actual management decision. (How often are they in the position to make an actual management decision) Importantly: more than half of the massacorn landowner visitors [53%] have had no prior contact or experience with traditional activities or sources of information - management plans, consulting foresters. Our marketing campaign has been very active since August 2008. In the 4 months since then, compared to the previous 4-month period, the number of visits has increased by 126%; page views on the site are increased by 160%; pages/visit are at 5.02, up 15%; time spent on the site (3:50 minutes) is up 15%; proportion of new visits (71%) is up 14%; and the bounce rate is at 42%, down 23%. Based on our online visitor surveys and monitoring site visitation, it seems direct mail postcards are most effective means to market/ heighten awareness of the existence of the site.
Publications
- Kittredge, D.B., A. Damato, P. Catanzaro, J. Fish, and B. Butler. 2008. Estimating ownerships and parcels of non-industrial private forest in Massachusetts. Northern Journal of Applied Forestry 25(2): 93-98.
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Progress 10/01/06 to 09/30/07
Outputs
OUTPUTS: We continued our direct mail marketing of the Vermont ACORN web site by mailing 2,000 post cards to woodland owners in southern Vermont, making them aware of the site. We also marketed the site by posting posters at more than 50 popular locations throughout the study area (e.g., town offices, general stores, coffee shops). We continued to develop a brand or image for the site by purchasing a new domain name (vtacorn.net). We continued to cooperate with the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation on this project, and have one of their County Foresters committed to giving roughly 3 days/monthly to content development, which we subsequently post on the site. The Vermont Woodland Owners Association mentions VT Acorn in their newsletter to members. We continue to monitor visitation to the site, as well as actively survey visitors about the site.
PARTICIPANTS: Sam Schneski. County Forester, Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation Jay Maciejowski, Regional Supervisor, VT Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation Amber Tulloch, undergraduate student, UMass-Amherst Department of Natural Resources Conservation David B. Kittredge. Professor and Extension Forester. University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
TARGET AUDIENCES: Through acquisition of property taxation records for our target watersheds in Vermont, we estimate approximately 6,300 owners of woodland greater than 10 acres. Through analysis of their mailing addresses, we estimate that roughly 50% of this family woodland is owned by people who are absentee, and this represents roughly 50% of the woodland in the two target watersheds.
PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: This year we have partnered more directly with the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation. They contribute several days/month of a County Forester's effort to generating new, fresh site content. We have purchased a new domain name for the site (vtacorn.net) giving it more relevance to Vermont. With reduced funding, we are unable to devote as much time or effort to marketing and site promotion as we had in earlier years of this project.
Impacts
Visitation to the Vermont ACORN site continues to improve. We average more than 9 visits/day, with an average visit length of 1:50 minutes, and 3.1 page views per visit. This compares favorably to national statistics on web site visitation (e.g., national average of duration of a web page viewed in October 2007 = 46 seconds (Nielsen NetRatings)). Our online visitor web survey suggests that more than three fourths of the visitors are woodland owners in the target area, and roughly 50% of them have had no prior contact or engagement with traditional means of forest owner assistance or programs (e.g., management planning, cost-sharing, services of a private consulting forester, timber sale). We estimate a total population of woodland owners in the VT study area who own 10 acres or more at roughly 6,300. With an average visitation rate of 9/day, that equates to potentially 3,285 annually, or roughly half the woodland owner population. It is difficult to measure or estimate
impacts of ACORN, though when asked about the possibility of some form of cooperation with other woodland owners as a result of ACORN, 41 percent of online visitor survey respondents reported favorably.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/05 to 09/30/06
Outputs
We surveyed 1,200 randomly selected private woodland owners (44% response rate) in our research study area (Westfield and Deerfield River watersheds in western Massachusetts) and control area (Millers River watershed in central Massachusetts) to determine baseline conditions of owner attitudes towards their land, use of the Internet, and information needs prior to the launch of the ACORN (A CoOperative Resource Network) web site. 84% of respondents are online; 58% of respondents are online on a daily basis. 75% of respondents do not currently use the internet for forest-related information, however. 26% of respondents are absentee owners who may rely on the internet for information since they can't be present to meet with professionals. 47% of respondents have never engaged in any form of stewardship-oriented activity (e.g., management planning, contact with forester, timber sale, membership in conservation organization). Average ownership is 63 acres (median = 30
acres), implying a challenge to manage on an ecosystem scale since multiple ownerships would need to be involved. Site is due to launch in November 2006.
Impacts
The ACORN web site is designed to provide woodland owners with information to enable them to make informed decisions about the future of their land. Fewer than 20% have professionally developed management plans to provide guidance about the care and future of their land. Unlike other online sources that are national or even international in scope and thus generic in terms of information, ACORN is designed to be locally relevant and to provide opportunities for owners to exchange information with one another, improving social connections between owners, and the care of a forested landscape that provides significant public benefit but is in the hands of hundreds of private owners.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 10/01/04 to 09/30/05
Outputs
This was the first year of the project. To date, we have acquired important baseline spatial data about the study area, and configured it to be served online. We have also acquired a new server and software to host the ACORN web site, and have developed some preliminary designs. In addition, we have acquired the names and addresses of all private woodland owners in both the study area and control (> 21,000 owners), which we will use to survey attitudes towards woodland and ACORN as a potential tool prior to launch. These data will also be used for marketing purposes subsequent to launching the site. Lastly, we have held a meeting with our advisory committee to solicit input on content and design.
Impacts
Woodland owners who visit and use the ACORN web site as a source of information will make better decisions about the future of their land. They will also discover opportunities for acting cooperatively at scales broader than their individual properties. Many woodland owners currently make decisions about the fate of their land in the absence of profesional advice. Many public benefits like wildlife habitat, clean water, and outdoor recreation will be sustainably provided for when woodland owners make informed decisions, and cooperate across property boundaries.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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