Francisco X. Aguilar

An overview of the forest products sector downturn in the United States

In recent years, the forest products industry of the U.S. experienced a downturn in output to levels not seen in decades and employment losses in the hundreds of thousands — for instance, a number ...

Motivations for recreating on farmlands, private forests, and state or national parks.

This study explores the importance of different motivations to visit three types of recreational settings—farms, private forests, and state or national parks. Data were collected via a mail-back questionnaire administered to a stratified random sample of households in Missouri (USA). Descriptive and inferential statistics reveal both similarities and discontinuities in motivations for visiting farms, private forests, and state or national parks for recreation. Being with family, viewing natural scenery, and enjoying the smells and sounds of nature were all highly important motivations for visiting the three types of settings. However, all 15 motivations examined were perceived to be significantly more important for visits to state or national parks than to farms or private forests. Findings suggest that individuals are more strongly motivated to recreate at state and national parks relative to farmlands or forests. Post hoc paired t tests comparing motivations between both agricultural settings (farms and private forests) revealed significant differences in eight different recreational motivations. Individuals tended to place more importance on the ability to use equipment and test their skills when considering recreating on private forests. Conversely, social motivations (e.g., doing something with the family) were more important when individuals were considering recreating on farmland. Collectively, the findings suggest individuals expect distinctly different outcomes from their visits to farmlands, private forests, or state or national parks. Consequently, all three types of recreational settings have competitive advantages that their managers could capitalize on when making decisions about how to attract new visitors or produce the most desirable experiences for current recreationists.

Marginal effects on biodiversity, carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling of transitions from tropical forests to cacao farming systems

Cacao (Theobroma cacao), a perennial crop predominantly cultivated as a multi-product and multi-strata agroforestry system, has been identified as one of an array of factors behind land use changes in the tropics. Concerns have also been raised about the gradual shift from traditional cacao growing systems under diverse and dense tree canopy to lower or no-shade cover, leading to further loss of direct and functional forest ecosystem values such as protective and regulatory environmental services. This paper surveys existing literature and focuses on changes to biodiversity, carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling conditions due to a transition from natural forests to traditional lower-density agroforestry and high-density hybrid monoculture cacao systems. We derive marginal effects on selected ecosystem functions expressed as a percentage unit change in corresponding ecosystem values from a natural forest baseline scenario. Data from 16 studies conducted in Africa and the Americas show a negative trend in marginal changes in above-and below-ground carbon sequestration potential for the two cacao farming systems. The extent of marginal losses in carbon storage was comparatively higher for the monoculture than cacao agroforestry system. A general trend denoting positive marginal changes has been reported for mean species richness in soil and litter and some essential chemical and physical soil properties (Calcium, Magnesium, sand and silt) of cacao agroforestry systems compared with a natural forest baseline. The balance between negative and positive changes show that traditional cacao agroforestry systems have greater potential for conservation of ecosystem services closer to a natural forest state than monocultures.

Frequency of consumption, familiarity and preferences for chestnuts in Missouri

A study of frequency of consumption and familiarity with preparing chestnuts was conducted in the state of Missouri from 2003 to 2008. A conjoint analysis of chestnut attributes was completed in 2008 to expand on previous consumer preference research. Information from final consumers was collected during the annual Missouri Chestnut Roast festival at the Horticulture and Agroforestry Research Center in New Franklin, Missouri. The study tracks changes in frequency of consumption and consumer familiarity with preparing chestnuts. The conjoint analysis evaluated pair-wise profiles to quantify the effects of origin, production process and price on consumer preferences. Results show improvements in the frequency of consumption and familiarity with cooking chestnuts in Missouri. Findings suggest the festival has influenced consumption patterns among return visitors. The conjoint analysis identified locality of produce and organic certification to be major drivers behind consumer preferences. Price is also an important attribute influencing consumer preferences. Conjoint analysis results indicate that chestnuts grown in Missouri or the U.S. carrying an organic label can capture price premiums.

Family-forest Owners’ Willingness to Harvest Sawlogs and Woody Biomass: The Effect of Price on Social Availability

Understanding willingness to harvest (WTH) is essential to assessing the social availability of woody biomass from private land. Currently, the only economically feasible way to harvest woody biomass is in conjunction with sawlogs. We examined WTH sawlogs and woody biomass from owners of family forests using data from a survey of Missouri forest owners. While their WTH increased with revenue expected from woody biomass, revenue expected from sawlogs was a stronger influence. Incentive payments for woody biomass thus are unlikely to increase its supply, and the social availability of woody biomass will remain limited unless sawlog prices rise significantly.

Conjoint analysis of industry location preferences: evidence from the softwood lumber industry in the US

Conjoint Analysis (CA) was used to study location preferences among members of the softwood lumber industry in the southern and western regions of the US. This industry was selected as an example of a resource-based industry to test several hypotheses derived from location theory. Decision-makers, owners and managers, identified price of logs and distance to sources for logs as the most important location factors. A secondary category included wages and energy costs. Other variables such as cost of land, quality of access roads and distance to markets are less important. There were statistically significant differences in the part-worth estimates of raw materials and wage costs among decision-makers but not between regions in an ordered model for site preference. Marginal analysis of the price of logs stressed its importance as the major location factor in the softwood lumber industry.

Proximal Association of Land Management Preferences: Evidence from Family Forest Owners

Individual behavior is influenced by factors intrinsic to the decision-maker but also associated with other individuals and their ownerships with such relationship intensified by geographic proximity. The land management literature is scarce in the spatially integrated analysis of biophysical and socio-economic data. Localized land management decisions are likely driven by spatially-explicit but often unobserved resource conditions, influenced by an individual’s own characteristics, proximal lands and fellow owners. This study examined stated choices over the management of family-owned forests as an example of a resource that captures strong pecuniary and non-pecuniary values with identifiable decision makers. An autoregressive model controlled for spatially autocorrelated willingness-to-harvest (WTH) responses using a sample of residential and absentee family forest owners from the U.S. State of Missouri. WTH responses were largely explained by affective, cognitive and experience variables including timber production objectives and past harvest experience. Demographic variables, including income and age, were associated with WTH and helped define socially-proximal groups. The group of closest identity was comprised of resident males over 55 years of age with annual income of at least

Executive Summary: Forests of the Northern United States

50,000. Spatially-explicit models showed that indirect impacts, capturing spillover associations, on average accounted for 14% of total marginal impacts among statistically significant explanatory variables. We argue that not all proximal family forest owners are equal and owners-in-absentia have discernible differences in WTH preferences with important implications for public policy and future research.

Perceived Benefits of Agricultural Lands Offering Agritourism

This executive summary provides an overview of the 200-page report, Forests of the Northern United States, which covers in detail current forest conditions, recent trends, issues, threats and opportunities in the forests in the 20 Northern States. It provides a context for subsequent Northern Forest Futures Project analyses that will forecast alternative future scenarios and their potential impacts on forests and people in the North. Facts and figures cited in this executive summary come from numerous publications and online databases; specific sources and many additional details are included in the full report.

Post-purchase evaluation of U.S. consumers’ preferences for chestnuts

ABSTRACT This study investigated residents’ perceived benefits of two types of agricultural lands (farms, cultivated forests) offering agritourism. Specifically, this study compared perceived socio-cultural, environmental, and economic services both types of lands produce and identified socio-economic, lifestyle behavioral, and past visit indicators associated with those perceptions. A survey was mailed to a random sample of 5000 households in Missouri (US), obtaining 969 responses. Respondents perceived that farms and forests produce several socio-cultural, environmental, and economic services to society, with few statistical differences between both. Socio-economic and lifestyle indicators were associated in different ways to residents’ perceptions of the services farms and forests provide. Socializing with friends and visiting those settings during childhood had a positive influence on all types of services derived from both settings. Policy, management, and marketing implications are discussed as to incorporate the benefits agricultural lands provide to society in the planning and development of agritourism.