Masters Theses
Date of Award
12-2003
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Major
Forestry
Major Professor
J. Mark Fly
Committee Members
David Ostermeier, John Peters
Abstract
Private forest land accounts for approximately 90% of southern forestland and approximately 58% of forested land nation wide (Best and Wayburn 2001, Egan and Jones 1993). Due to several inter-related and compounding reasons ranging from increased interest from the forest products industry to increased societal value placed on non-commodity forest resources, the social and biological landscape of private forests is changing rapidly and experiencing increased, diverse, and novel pressures.
The majority of past private forest landowner (PFL) studies have used quantitative survey techniques to characterize landowners and ownership patterns, ascertain landowners' management objectives, and prioritize forest values. Available qualitative studies also focus on landowners' management motivations and interests. Findings from these studies indicate that the majority of private forestland is not actively managed and, when comparing numbers of individuals owning forestland to PFL participation rates in education and assistance programs, the majority of PFL's can be classified as non-participant private forest landowners.
Consequently, some authors contend that natural resource professionals (NRP's) do not adequately understand PFL's, and have called for new approaches and new perspectives in research and program development. Phenomenology, a combined philosophy and research discipline, is an appropriate methodological choice to address these needs. Phenomenology emphasizes the first person perspective and attempts to describe how individuals experience phenomena and the meaning of those experiences. It is particularly useful in any field in which a "professional consultant seeks to discover the wishes and needs of a client" (Pollio, Henley, and Thompson 1997).
The purpose of this phenomenological investigation is to describe how nonparticipant PFL's experience their forestland in order to inform the practice of NRP's working with private forest landowners. Seven study participants were asked to describe experiences on their forestland that stand out to them. A thematic description of the experience was developed to address the meaning of the experience. Six intricately related themes descriptive of non-participant PFL's experience of their land were revealed: Connection, Continuity, Power and Awe, Peacefulness and Trouble, Values, and Freedom/Control/Constraint. Additional findings indicate that although nonparticipant PFL's may be more involved in land management activities, such as removing diseased trees and changing drainage patterns, than previously thought, they do not identify as land managers nor find traditionally defined management related terms and concepts to be meaningful aspects of their experiences of their land. Furthermore, similarities between the thematic descriptions of how non-participant private forest landowners experience their land and the internal management motivations identified by Bliss and Martin (1988, 1989) for very active landowners indicate that categorizing PFL's based on activity levels and participation rates may be less directly related to motivations and interests than previously realized.
Recommended Citation
Steiner, Miriam L.E., "Understanding the experience of non-participant private forest landowners : a phenomenological investigation. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2003.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/6514