Recipient Organization
AUBURN UNIVERSITY
108 M. WHITE SMITH HALL
AUBURN,AL 36849
Performing Department
School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences
Non Technical Summary
As a larger amount of forests are wound by small owners, small-scale forestry has significant impacts on timber supply, rural socio-economic development, and ecosystems in the rural areas. Traditionally, we are used to believing that small-scale forestland ownership is less efficient in economics and does not promoting social equity, and most importantly is not consistent with the interests of the public in ecological integrity. But this proposed study aims to challenge the conceptions and to explore and better understand the efficiency, equity, and ecological issue of the small forestland ownership. We argue that private small-scale forestry could be efficient and might promote social equity if non-timber production is the objective of the ownership. The public can also benefit tremendously from pubic and common goods provided by private lands while their owners pursue their own interests of aesthetics, recreation, and natural conservation. The proposed study extends from forest management to forest harvesting, which is also characterized by small firms. The results will be useful in developing policies that can promote private forest management and integration with changing society.
Animal Health Component
90%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
10%
Applied
90%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
To examine historical evolution and spatial distribution of small-scale family-owned forests in the Southern States. To evaluate the objectives, management and behaviors of small-scale family forestland owners and their impacts in economic efficiency, social equity, and ecological integrity.To assess the employment, profitability, and size of logging firms in the Southern States.To propose policy recommendation to support family forest and private woodlots in providing timber and ecosystem services.
Project Methods
To achieve the research objectives, the proposed study is to implement following tasks.Task 1: The family forests owners and their management in the Southern StatesWithout considering policies and social constraints, individuals theoretically own and adjust holding size or land use to maximize their utilities subject to their wealth and market. To investigate the dynamics and role of family forests, we need to understand changes in socio-economic variables associated with individual characteristics (e.g., income and education), society (e.g., population and economic structure), and public policies (e.g., taxation). In addition, we need to examine the relationship between ownership and socio-economic change, forest owners' characteristics, forestland owner objectives and management behaviors.In the long run, changes in relative scarcity (capital, labor and land, wood and agricultural products, ecosystem services) and transaction costs influence the evolution of forestland ownership. Technological changes partly driven by the relative scarcities play a special role in the evolution process. Like technologies, institutions, including land tenure and laws, also play an important role in this process. The initial land arrangement (e.g., homesteads) played a critical role in shaping current forest land ownership.Building on previous research, our approach is to trace: 1) the evolution of forestland ownerships, particularly family forestland 2) the drivers of changes in the context of relative scarcity of labor, land, capital, wood product and ecosystem services with change in technologies, 3) socio-economic and political history such as taxation and other regulations.The causes and effects of changes in family forests can be identified across regions and times. For example, in Alabama, significant differences can be found between the southern and northern counties and between the eastern and western counties in terms of rural economic structure, demography, landscape and even public policies. Alabama can be divided into three main physiographic regions: the Coastal Plains, Piedmont and the Ridge and Valley Province. From a demographic perspective, there is a Black Belt, a term used describe both soil coloration and racial composition.Family forestry is characterized by heterogeneity in ownership structure, owners' objectives, and management practices. Differences among forest landowners by age and occupation have been regularly documented, but other social dimensions, such as race and gender, have received considerably less attention. Understanding how forest landowners from different social backgrounds use, value, and manage forest is crucial for developing appropriate programs to encourage landowners from all segments of society to manage their forests for private and public benefits.To achieve this task, we will primarily use the National Woodland Owner Survey (NWOS) data collected by USDA Forest Service, and additional data from the Census Data and county tax offices. NWOS is the official census of forest owners in the United States. The first national woodland owner survey was conducted by the USDA Forest Service in 1978 and was subsequently followed by another national survey in 1994. Since then, it has been conducted on an annual basis. Landowners are asked to fill-out a questionnaire no more than once during a state's inventory cycle. The data include various landowners, their woodland and management information.Task 2: Accounting of ecosystem services produced by the family forestryAny ownership of forestland provides ecosystem services. Accounting for ecosystem services by family forests is needed to determine what additional ecosystem services are produced compared to other ownerships, particularly forest industry ownership. Of course, not all family forest management is handled the same way. Thus, measuring variation of family forest management in providing ecosystem service is most essential.Built upon the studies in Task 1, additional data will be collected and enable us to build different forest management scenarios by different owners. The variation in management generates various combinations of multiple forest products and ecosystem services which can help us derive different levels of ecosystem services and public goods enjoyed by society.Task 3: Technological advancement, employment, profitability, and size of logging firm in the Southern StatesThe logging industry is essential to forest industry and provides good job opportunities for rural areas across the south. The coexistence of large-scale and small-scale logging firms has been observed in the past decades. He et al. (2021) found employment in size 0-19, 20-49 and 50+ continued to decline, and employment in size 0-19 scale still dominated. Logging firms with a scale of 0-19 provided greater employment opportunities than the other two scale from 1997 to 2017. Most states had firms with a scale of 0-19, and more people were employed than the other two. Logging firms are motivated to achieve internal economies of scale with consolidation. Consolidation can employ increasing returns to scale by expanding the scale of harvest and thus bring improvements in production efficiency.The secondary data have been collected, including employment in logging industry, wages, mechanization, stumpage prices and forest product prices. But the data quality needs to be improved through cross-checking. The State-level, multi-year employment and average monthly earnings in logging industry (Code 1133 North American Industrial Classification System, NAICS) were extracted from Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW). The capital stock per ton production is used to represent the level of mechanization, and it is extracted from Wood Supply Chain Analysis: Special Market Analysis Study. But the data are almost 10 years old and only at the regional level. The stumpage price can be obtained from Timber-Mart South (TMS), and it needs to be purchased. Logging production level is extracted from TPO, which is conducted by Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) to estimate timber products at the state level.