Source: AUBURN UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
MILLIONS OF ACRES, BILLIONS OF TREES: SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF TIMBERLAND SALES BY THE FOREST PRODUCTS INDUSTRY IN ALABAMA
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
0226846
Grant No.
2011-68006-31051
Cumulative Award Amt.
$499,999.00
Proposal No.
2011-02697
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2011
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2017
Grant Year
2011
Program Code
[A1631]- Agriculture Economics and Rural Communities: Rural Development
Recipient Organization
AUBURN UNIVERSITY
108 M. WHITE SMITH HALL
AUBURN,AL 36849
Performing Department
Agri Economics & Rural Sociol
Non Technical Summary
Since 1990, corporations in the forest product industry have divested themselves of as much as26 million acres of commercial timberland in United States, with most of this divestiture occurring in the past decade. Virtually every major corporation in this industry has participated in such sales, resulting in dramatic changes in ownership of land. Literature on the forest products industry sale of commercial timberland has focused on economic motivations for widespread divestiture. These boil down to corporate shareholder value and tax advantages. Timber investment management organizations, or TIMOs, and real estate investment trusts, or REITs, have become major players through ownership and control of most of the land sold by industry. These new owners and managers will shape the future of the forest products industry and the larger rural economy because they will determine management objectives of this land. In some cases, the new owners may continue to manage for commercial timber production, but in other cases different management objectives may affect land use patterns. In some cases, new owners will identify "highest and best uses" (suburban, exurban, recreational, conservation, or industrial development) resulting in land being removed from timber production. To the extent that these new land uses reduce the volume of timber harvested, the price of timber may increase. Non-industrial private forestland owners would benefit from higher prices, but only if mills are able to remain competitive in an increasingly global market. Changes in timber harvests and prices could result in mill closures and the loss of employment in timber management and harvesting and in value added processing of wood products. Our project is designed to document and analyze the social and economic impacts of ownership and land use change affecting the single most important manufacturing sector in Alabama. We will conduct semi-structure interviews with a variety of stakeholders and knowledgeable individuals and conduct a survey of new owners to learn what impact change of ownership had on forestland management objectives. We will develop Extension programming to assist communities and counties affected by changes in forestland ownership to identify appropriate policies at the local and state levels to reduce negative externalities and maximize benefits associated with industrial divestiture of commercial timberland.
Animal Health Component
60%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
60%
Developmental
40%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
1230699106020%
1230699301010%
1230699308010%
1236050301010%
1236050308010%
8030699301020%
8036050308020%
Knowledge Area
803 - Sociological and Technological Change Affecting Individuals, Families, and Communities; 123 - Management and Sustainability of Forest Resources;

Subject Of Investigation
6050 - Communities, areas, and regions; 0699 - Trees, forests, and forest products, general;

Field Of Science
1060 - Biology (whole systems); 3010 - Economics; 3080 - Sociology;
Goals / Objectives
The broad goal of our project is to understand the social and economic implications of the timber products industry having divested itself of forestland in Alabama. The central research question is how, if at all, has change in ownership affected land management decisions and how will any changes found affect communities, workers and manufacturing facilities that depend on a continuous flow of wood. The project has four objectives. Objective 1 is to document in detail the transfer of ownership of commercial timberland in Alabama from corporations in the forest products industry to REITs, TIMOs, and other investors. Objective 2 is to identify land use and management objectives of the new owners of timberland previously owned by corporations in the forest products industry, and document related land use changes in Alabama. Objective 3 is to document the social and economic impacts of new timberland ownership types and land use patterns and management objectives on land previously owned by the forest products industry in Alabama. Objective 4 is to identify appropriate extension and outreach programs and public policies at the local and state levels to reduce negative externalities and maximize benefits associated with industrial divestiture of commercial timberland in Alabama. We will conduct face to face interviews with timber procurement officers and others within the forest products industry, with Extension agents, with consulting foresters, with local government officials, and with others employed in logging or support services. We will survey new owners to ascertain their land management objectives. We will develop Extension programs to help communities which may be affected by change in land management to adapt appropriately to opportunities and challenges.
Project Methods
The methods for data collection are standard archival research, face to face interviews, and surveys. We will obtain property ownership data for those Alabama counties where the forest products industry owned land before divestiture occurred. We will identify those lands through interviews with key informants in industry and the cooperative extension system. We will interview new owners to understand their land management objectives and determine if there are any likely changes that would affect the local economy. We will meet with local government officials and stakeholders to learn what they think the social and economic impacts of ownership change has been in their communities and together develop Extension programming to promote adaptive management to deal with such changes as are identified.

Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Our primary target audience involves researchers from industry and universities working on the forest products industry and on rural development. Policymakers at the state level will benefit from a better understanding of ownership patterns, and in particular high rates of absentee ownership and high rates of concentrated ownership. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?One post-doctoral fellow was hired and seven graduate students were supported. The post-doctoral fellow provided important continuity to the project and was instrumental in developing the timberland ownership database that provided a solid foundation to the project as a whole. The post-doctoral fellow was able to secure a tenure track faculty position after working on this project. Two doctoral dissertations and four MS theses were completed. One Ph.D. student is professionally employed as a modeler for a financial management corporation and the other is a member of the faculty at Adiyaman University in Turkey. On M.S. student is completing his Ph.D. in Forestry at the University of Washington, one is pursuing a Ph.D. in Adult Education at Auburn University, one is employed by the Cooperative Extension System of Georgia. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Yes, primarily through academic conferences and publications reaching foresters, sociologists, economists, and geographers, through Extension programming and publication, and through a webpage documenting timberland ownership in each of Alabama's 67 counties. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Using county property tax records for all 67 Alabama counties, a database documenting all timberland ownership in the state was developed. This database provided a foundation for most subsequent research by the project director, the two co-project directors, a post-doctoral fellow, and seven graduate students. A webpage was developed using public tax records that described changes in timberland ownership in Alabama and provided ownership data on each of the state's 67 counties. Six articles were published in peer reviewed journals, one is in press, and four additional articles are under review. One book chapter was published. Seven peer reviewed abstracts were published. Nineteen conference presentations were made and one invited lecture was presented. Two Ph.D. dissertations and four M.S. theses were completed. One Extension publication was published.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2018 Citation: Gunnoe, Andrew, Lord Ameyaw, and Conner Bailey. In Press. Millions of acres, billions of trees: socio-ecological impacts of shifting timberland ownership. Rural Sociology. Accepted 7 November 2017.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Uslu, Hakan. and Larry Teeter. 2017. Shutdown decision of firms based on variable costs and demand: empirical evidence from the forest products industry of Alabama. The American Economist 62(1):4365.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Barlow, Rebecca and Conner Bailey. 2017. The potential impact of heir property on timber management in the southern United States. Professional Agricultural Workers Journal 5(1). Available at https://tuspubs.tuskegee.edu/pawj/vol5/iss1/3
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Randle, Anne, Becky Barlow, and Andrew Gunnoe. 2016. Southern forests in flux: Mapping changing timberland ownership in five Alabama counties. Southeastern Geographer 55(4):459-473.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Gunnoe, Andrew. 2016. The financialization of the US forest products industry: socio-economic relations, shareholder value, and the restructuring of an industry. Social Forces 94(3):1075-1101.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Kaetzel, Brandon, Indrajit Majumdar, Larry Teeter, and Brett Butler. 2012. Regional differences among family forest landowners using National Woodland Owner Survey results. South. J. Appl. For. 36(3): 141-145.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Ameyaw, L., A. Gunnoe, and B. Barlow. 2014. Meet the neighbors: understanding who owns Alabamas woodlands. Alabama Cooperative Extension System. FOR-2006.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Hunt, Seth D. 2016. Timber barons, taxes, and technology: from past to present, an examination of how Alabamas lumber history foreshadowed current forestland ownership trends. Auburn University. MS Thesis, Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2017 Citation: Gopaul, Abhimanyu. 2017. The socio-economic impact of concentration of timberland ownership in Alabama. MS Thesis, Rural Sociology, Auburn University.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: Uslu, Hakan. 2016. An econometric approach to applied microeconomic theories: the case of natural resource-based industries. Ph.D. dissertation, Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2013 Citation: Ameyaw, Lord. 2013. Investigating the objectives of the new owners of Alabamas timberlands. MS Thesis, Rural Sociology, Auburn University.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2012 Citation: Gorman, Jacob. 2012. Institutional timberland investments: asset pricing and the discount rate. Ph.D. Dissertation, Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University.
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2016 Citation: http://aers.auburn.edu/conner-bailey/alabama-timberland/
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Bailey, Conner. 2016. Explaining persistent rural poverty in the South: property in concentrated and clouded Forms. Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology, Utah State University. March 15, 2016. Logan, Utah. Invited Lecture.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: Gopaul, Abhimanu and Conner Bailey. 2017. The socio-economic impact of concentration of timberland ownership in Alabama. Paper presented at the 2017 meetings of the Rural Sociological Society, Columbus, Ohio, 27-30 July 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2017 Citation: Bailey, Conner and Andrew Gunnoe. 2017. Millions of acres and billions of trees changed hands, but everything remained (almost) the same. Paper presented at the 2017 meetings of the Southern Rural Sociological Association, Mobile, Alabama, 4-7 February 2017.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Bailey, Conner and Rebecca Barlow. 2016. Practical constraints to timber management among owners of heir property. Paper presented at the 2016 meetings of the Professional Agricultural Workers Conference, Tuskegee University, December 3-6, 2016.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Other Year Published: 2016 Citation: Bailey, Conner and Andrew Gunnoe. 2016. Land and power: using data to challenge the status quo in Alabama. Paper presented at the 2016 meetings of the Rural Sociological Society, Toronto, Canada, August 7-11, 2016.


Progress 09/01/12 to 08/31/13

Outputs
Target Audience: Academic audiences in the form of readers of academic journals and those who attend academic conferences where preliminary results are presented and discussed. Students in classes that I teach also learn about ongoing research as the material is folded into lectures and class discussions. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? One doctoral student and three masters level students have been supported. One student had to take leave for one year due to a family emergency. One student completed her thesis and is employed full time in Extension at Tuskegee University. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The communities of interest at this stage of the project are primarily academic. Two peer-reviewed articles were published in leading academic journals. One book chapter and one thesis also were published out of this project. Reflecting the on-going nature of our work, a total of eight conference papers were presented What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We intend to complete one doctoral dissertation and at least one if not two masters theses. We also hope to complete several manuscripts currently under review or in preparateion.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? A database of timber land ownership was created covering all 67 counties in Alabama. There was previously no centralized listing of ownership and from this database we are able to identify relative concentration of timber land ownership and also the extent to which absentee ownership is an issue. This database was used to support thesis research on land use changes associated with changes in timber land ownership. This thesis focused on one of the state's most productive region for timber production. Results allayed fears that divestiture of land on the part of corporations in the forest products industry would lead to fragmentation of holdings and adversely affect productivity within the industry.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Gunnoe, Andrew. 2014. The Political Economy of Institutional Landownership: Neorentier Society and the Financialization of Land. Rural Sociology 79(4):478-504.
  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Bailey, Conner and Mahua Majumdar. 2014. Absentee Forest and Farmland Ownership in Alabama: Capturing Benefits from Natural Capital Controlled by Non-Residents. Pages 134-149 in John Pender, Thomas G. Johnson, Bruce Weber and J. Matthew Fannin (eds), Rural Wealth Creation. New York: Routledge.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Randle, Anne Cumbie. 2014. Pinning Down the Change: A Community-Level Study of Timberland Ownership Change. MS Thesis. School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University.
  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2014 Citation: Bailey, Conner, Bob Gramling, and Shirley Laska. 2014. Complexities of Resilience: Adaptation and Change within Human Communities of Coastal Louisiana. Pages 125-140 in The Once and Future Delta. Editors, J. Day, P. Kemp, A. Freeman, and David Muth. New York: Springer.


Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/12

Outputs
OUTPUTS: This is the first year of the project. We received official notification in late September and the project accounts were established in early December 2011. Since that time we have focused on recruiting a post doctoral fellow and three new graduate students, all of who started in August 2012. To the extent that outputs have been shared, this has involved interactions with stakeholders in the forest products industry who have been alerted to our interest in land ownership changes during interviews which began during Fall 2012. We also have mapped the recent history of mill closings in the forest products industry in Alabama over the past decade. PARTICIPANTS: Dr. Conner Bailey, Project Director and Professor of Rural Sociology Dr. Larry Teeter, Co Project Director and Professor of Forest Economics Dr. Rebecca Barlow, Co Project Director, Extension Specialist, and Associate Professor of Forestry Dr. Andrew Gunnoe, Post Doctoral Fellow Mr. Lord Ameyaw, Graduate Research Fellow, Rural Sociology Mr. Nick Wietzel, Graduate Research Fellow, Rural Sociology Ms. Anne Cumbie Randle, Graduate Research Fellow, Forestry Mr. Hakan Uslu, Graduate Research Fellow, Forestry Dr. John Bliss, Project Collaborator, Oregon State University TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
We have not at this time conducted a project evaluation as we are just starting. Project resources were used in recruiting and hiring a post doctoral fellow and recruiting graduate students.

Publications

  • No publications reported this period