An analysis of non-industrial private forest landowners in Tennessee

Since 82 percent of Tennessee's forests are owned by non-industrial private forest landowners (NIPF), the need to gain an understanding of the NIPF owners is essential to the future of forestry in Tennessee, to the well-being of rural communities that depend on Tennessee's forest resources, and to the overall economy of the state. Although there have been a number of NIPF studies across the U.S., none have focused solely on the state of Tennessee.

Therefore, the purpose of this thesis was to begin to develop an understanding of NIPF owners in Tennessee. The four research questions guiding the study were: (1) What are the nature and characteristics of NIPF owners and their forest ownership in Tennessee, (2) What would professional foresters like to know about NIPF owners and their forests, (3) What information was found from current literature and analyses of existing databases that addressed the informational needs, (4) What future research is needed to better understand NIPF owners in Tennessee?

Three methodological approaches were used to address the research questions above: (1) personal interviews with professional foresters in Tennessee, (2) analyses of Tennessee tax records and U.S. Forest Service databases, and (3) review of literature on NIPF owners in Tennessee and the surrounding region.

The findings from the research provided knowledge about the nature and characteristics of NIPF owners in Tennessee by describing the number of ownerships, acres of forest land, forms of ownership, size classes (acres), ages, occupations, education levels, incomes, and sources of information about forest management. The findings also provided insight into the NIPF owners' reasons for owning forest land, the treatment of the forests, forest management practices, environmental concerns, experience with forestry and conservation, and forest stewardship participation factors. Many of these findings addressed various informational needs expressed by professional foresters in Tennessee. Overall, the findings indicated that Tennessee's NIPF owners are quite diverse and not easily characterized in a summary format. Future research that classifies Tennessee's NIPF owners into market segments could be helpful in targeting educational and assistance programs to the appropriate audience. Informational needs of professional foresters that were not addressed by this research, such as knowledge of foresters, current management, future harvesting practices and how to reach the landowner, also provide an opportunity for future NIPF research in Tennessee.