Daowei Zhang

An AAES study reveals that public and private assistance foresters play a particularly strong role in advising the state's nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners, having assisted in about 50% of all NIPF management activities in Alabama over the past 10 years. NIPF landowners own about 72% of the forest land in Alabama, but many rely on assistance foresters' expertise and information to ensure efficient markets and sound forest management.

Assistance foresters include three groups of foresters: public foresters who work for county, state, or federal agencies and whose services are provided without charge; consulting foresters who run their own forestry consulting business and who charge a fee for services; and industry foresters who work for forest industry firms and provide services to NIPF landowners on behalf of the firms. Assistance foresters' services cover all aspects of forestry, including management plan preparation, timber harvesting, marketing, reforestation, tiniber stand improvement, and wildlife management. Assistance foresters influence not only the benefits obtained from timber sales and forest management for NIPF landowners, but also the long-term health and productivity of forest lands, which are important to the general public.

In spring 1996, AAES forestry researchers began a survey focusing on profiles and perceptions of assistance foresters' services, distribution and quality of services, and landowners activities and characteristics. A representative sample of 616 Alabama NIPF landowners were surveyed, with a response rate of approximately 43%.

During the last 10 years (see table), 65% of the landowners have cut timber from their lands. Sixty-four percent of them have sold timber, and 50% of them have planted trees. Only 15% of landowners have sprayed pine forests to control weeds, undesirable species, insects, or diseases. Twenty-two percent of the landowners have intentionally burned their forest for management purposes, and 27% have developed a forest management plan. Finally, 50% of the landowners have improved wildlife habitats on their lands, and 33% of them have performed other kinds of forest management such as site preparation, marking property boundaries, and establishing recreational facilities. These results indicate that NIPF landowners are fairly active in managing their forests. Only 17% of the respondents have not conducted any management activities in the last 10 years.

Assistance foresters played a major role in helping landowners conduct these management activities (see table). Of the landowners who conducted these management activities, 57% have used assistance foresters in timber harvesting, 54% in timber marketing, 65% in tree planting, 77% in spraying, 75% in burning, 83% in preparing forest management plans, and 31 % in improving wildlife habitats.

The roles of the three groups of foresters vary slightly in different activities. Consulting foresters have played the largest role in all management activities. Of the activities in which assistance foresters are involved, consulting foresters have participated in about 45-50% of all management activities (see table). However, public and industry foresters have made significant contribution as well. Since many NIPF landowners have not used assistance foresters, and some of them have not even heard of these services, it seems that there is room for each group to expand their services.

Figure 1 shows the distribution of services in all forest management activities among landowners with different sizes of forest lands. Public foresters provide more services to small landowners (less than 51 acres) than consulting and industry foresters. On the other hand, consulting and industry foresters provide more services to large landowners who own more than 500 acres.

Figure 2 shows the relationship between services provided and landowners income. Public foresters provide 37% of their services to landowners who have less than $50,000 annual income. Consulting foresters and industry foresters provide 22% and 19% of their services, respectively, to this group of landowners. Industry and consulting foresters provide more of their services to landowners who have annual incomes of $50,001 to $100,000. The percentage of services provided to landowners who have incomes more than $100,000 is roughly equal among the three groups of assistance foresters.

Figure 2. Relationship between sevices provided and landowners' income.

These results suggest that public foresters provide more of their services to landowners who have smaller acreage and lower incomes. While industry assistance is often free, economies of scale might also make industry foresters focus on medium and large landowners. Consulting foresters assist large and wealthy landowners more than public and industry foresters.

In order to reveal the perceptions and reactions of NIPF landowners to the services provided by assistance foresters, respondents were asked to rate each of the services they received from each group of foresters into four categories: poor, fair, good, and excellent. Figure 3 shows the results for the overall ratings of each group of foresters in all management activities. Generally speaking, landowners have a favorable impression of all three groups: excellent and good appear in more than 75% in the overall rating for every group. Though not reported here, detailed ratings in individual management activities show similar results.

Figure 3. The overall rating of assistance foresters' services by NIPF landowners.

Landowners were asked to indicate from whom (or what) they heard about the particular assistance forester they initially contacted and requested services. Thirty-seven percent of them heard about the particular foresters from another landowner, and 18% from a friend other than a landowner. Telephone directories, landowner conferences, and advertisements in magazines, newsletters, or newspapers account for another 15%. The other sources were other foresters, lawyers, and federal, state, and county agents. These results suggest that reputation and networking are important in order for assistance foresters to find and retain clients and to expand their clientele.

Landowners were asked to give their opinions on two questions related to public forester assistance. When asked whether the number of public foresters should be increased, decreased, or stay roughly the same, 33% of the respondents replied stay roughly the same, 42% have no opinion, and 21% indicated they should be increased. Only 5% indicated that public foresters should be decreased. Since services from Alabama's public foresters are free, the respondents were asked how much they might be willing to pay if public foresters charged for their services. Fifty percent said they would pay nothing. Another 45% were willing to pay $20-$100 for a day. Only 4% of the respondents would be willing to pay more than $100 a day.

These results indicate that NIPF landowners do not support a decrease in the number of public foresters in Alabama. Their responses on the question of willingness-to-pay are divided, with roughly half in favor of paying and half against. Several landowners commented that they should not pay for services provided by public foresters because they have already paid tax. Others mentioned that they would want to know what services public foresters provided to them before offering any payment. Still others commented that landowners should pay for services provided by public foresters.

Zhang is an Assistant Professor of Forestry. The author wishes to thank Sarah Warren and Conner Bailey for their help.