Tamara L. Cushing

McPhail Tree Farm, South Carolina, United States of America

Abstract Family forests (those owned by families, individuals, trusts, estates, family partnerships, and other non-incorporated groups of individuals) represent an important segment of private forest land ownership in the United States. There are about 11 million private forest owners and 92% of them are family forest owners that control 62% of private forest land, or 35% of all forest land in the nation ( Butler, 2008 ). Less than 1% of family forest owners (who control 4% of family forest land) are certified as practicing sustainable forest management ( Butler, 2008 ). The American Tree Farm System (ATFS) has encouraged sustainable forestry on family forests for more than 70 years and is a recognized forest certification system that caters to the family forest. ATFS forest certification standards are tailored to the small family ownership. Other forest certifiers tend to cater to forest owners with large timberland areas. The ATFS has developed a forest management plan template that incorporates the components normally included in a family forest management plan with sustainable forest management standards and requirements. This case study illustrates the use of that template on a family forest owned by a National Outstanding Tree Farmer of the Year (the highest honor for an ATFS certified family forest).

A Survey of Logger Concerns When Working with Small Woodland Owners

Many small woodland owners will harvest timber only once in their lifetime. Their expectations of a logging operation do not often match with reality. On the other side of the equation, loggers express frustration when working with small woodland owners. The jobs are smaller and often come with complications not found with industrial forest owners. Adding to this is the fact that the two parties often aren’t speaking the same language. In order to better prepare landowners for this operation, we surveyed logging contractors to learn about the interactions with small woodland owners in Oregon, USA. The mail survey focused on how jobs were bid, use of contracts, and difficulties that loggers had when working with small woodland owners. Results provide information that confirms the challenges present when working with many individual owners who do not have experience with harvest operations. Survey results also confirm that the logging workforce in Oregon is aging on average. Results showed no correlation between the number of years working as a logger and responses to other questions.