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ABSTRACT: Forest resources are important economic assets to the southern United States; however, many landowners do not realize the full benefit of their forestland. It was believed that few landowners were being served by forestry-related educational programs or other relevant activities. Therefore, forest landowners in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee were engaged in focus groups and surveyed to determine barriers to participation. Six thousand surveys were mailed to landowners owning 10 or more acres of forestland. A total of 1,689 surveys were returned for an adjusted rate of return of 30.7%. From a sociodemographic standpoint, significant differences (α = 0.05) between states existed for ethnic background (P = 0.000) and educational attainment (P = 0.000) only. Landowners' served status was determined by their responses concerning use of a professional forester (37%), information previously received pertaining to forestry (40%), membership in a forestry-related organization (11%), and attendance at forestry-related educational programs (14%). Based on an index compiled from these responses, 75% of forest landowners were deemed underserved. Landowners stated the main reason they had not taken advantage of these programs or services was because they were unaware of them. This indicated a need for more comprehensive outreach efforts targeting landowners. The results revealed that forestry professionals can potentially increase landowner awareness of educational programs by mailing newsletters, pamphlets/brochures, and/or letters to all forest landowners within a reasonable distance of the program. Overall, respondents reported wildlife management, insects/diseases, and marketing timber as topics of paramount interest for future educational programs. South. J. Appl. For. 29(4): 194-199.
Key Words: Educational needs, forestry services, mail questionnaires, NIPF landowners.
Forestry and forest products are important economic considerations for the southern United States. In 1997, employment in the wood products sector exceeded 770,000 jobs and $120 billion in total industry output (Abt et al. 2002). Forestland is one of the major land uses in the South, and it offers environmental benefits and economic opportunities for landowners. These benefits and opportunities are the result of an extensive forestland base, forest ownership dominated by approximately 4.3 million nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners, highly productive forests, diverse timber markets, and opportunities for fee hunting, pine straw production, agroforestry, and other alternative land use enterprises (Birch 1997, Hubbard 1999, Jones et al. 2001,...