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In recent years the “working landscape” concept has risen to prominence in popular, academic, and policy discourse surrounding conservation of both natural and cultural values in inhabited landscapes. Despite its implied reconciliation of commodity production and environmental protection, this concept remains contested terrain, masking tensions over land use practices and understandings of human–nature relations. Here we draw on a case study of landownership and land use change in remote, rural Wallowa County, Oregon to explore how working landscapes are envisioned and enacted by various actors. The arrival of landowning amenity migrants, many of whom actively endorsed a working landscape vision, resulted in subtle but significant transformations in land use practices and altered opportunities for local producers. The working landscape ideal, while replete with tensions and contradictions, nevertheless functioned as an important alternative vision to the rural gentrification characteristic of other scenic Western environs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 15 years the U.S. forest industry has almost completely divested its forestland holdings, creating new ownership opportunities for timberland investors, land trusts, and government agencies. Many newly available forestlands are adjacent to communities transitioning away from timber dependence toward economies based on recreation and real estate. This case study research examines changing ownership and management on two formerly industrial forests in central Oregon: a proposed land trust-owned community forest next to rapidly growing, wealthy Bend, Oregon; and a state-owned forest adjacent to the more isolated community of Gilchrist, Oregon. Through the case of these two forests, we illustrate the multifunctional transition and its relationship to community capacity in the U.S. West. We emphasize the importance of new allies and alliances in forest decision making, and the central role of forest degradation in the transition away from productivist forestry. Finally, we highlight opportunities and challenges for new conservation and government ownerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonindustrial private forestland (NIPF) owners in the United States are subject to state and federal regulations designed to protect fish and wildlife habitat, wetlands, and other sensitive resources. Oregon state regulations restrict forest operations on private lands that might potentially conflict with specified resource sites, including nest sites of certain bird species and wetland sites. Research undertaken in 2004 examined the extent and distribution of sensitive resource site actions and examined the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of affected NIPF owners regarding specified resource site policies and procedures. Methods included statistical analysis of state databases and semistructured interviews with key informants. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed to elicit central themes. Our findings suggest that NIPF owners' responses to sensitive resource protection reflect not only economic concerns but also landowner management objectives and values and their perceptions of policy implementation. Themes related to power and control, perceptions of habitat protection, policy implementation, and trust and credibility are identified as driving informant views of resource protection policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review article deals with the evolution of academic small-scale forestry research in Sweden and the USA from its early focus on timber supply to present-day interest in stewardship objectives, characteristics and attitudes. Aiming at identifying fresh opportunities for research on small-scale forestry, it reflects on the questions that have dominated the literature over the past quarter of a century, the socioeconomic conditions under which those questions arose, and their influence on the evolution of the field. The goal was to explore key drivers for research over the past 25 years and identify emerging research themes, and by that provide insight into what developments may make the research enterprise more fruitful. With some exceptions, it is based on articles in refereed journals and to academic theses covering the time span 1985-2010. It reflects a reappraisal of the subject of the research and corresponding policies. Similar research tendencies are evident in both countries. Research historically focused on the practical problem of efficient production using a weak theoretical foundation. More recently, researchers have focused on understanding diverse motivations and roles that can be played. It is argued that the field of small-scale forestry research is ripe for new multidisciplinary approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conserving threatened habitats on private lands requires policies that advance the interests of landowners and natural resource professionals alike. Through qualitative analysis of individual and focus-group interviews, we compared how family forest owners and natural resource professionals frame conservation of threatened habitat: the oak woodlands and savanna in Oregon. Applying constructionism to the analysis and design of specific policies, we explored policy options to facilitate cooperation and avert conflict between these stakeholders. Informants displayed three primary frames in discussions of oak conservation: the human-nature relationship, the rights and obligations of property ownership, and the role of policy in social change. Their motivations to conserve oak and preferences for conservation policy stemmed from their differing uses of these frames. Conservation easements, habitat mitigation banking, and voluntary grass-roots initiatives were three types of policy that seemed to accommodate the frames of both owners and natural resource professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Kaufman and Kaufman's seminal 1946 study examining the relationship between forests and communities, forest and community paradigms have shifted from (1) utilitarian views that stressed community stability and sustained yield harvests, to (2) ecosystem management and community resilience, to, we posit, (3) a new paradigm of forest and community health. The healthy forests, healthy communities paradigm both builds upon and departs from older paradigms. This article presents a case study of a small, resource-dependent community in eastern Oregon to illustrate the meanings and policy implications of this emerging paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing policies that harness the motivations of landowners is essential for conserving threatened habitats on private lands. Our goal was to understand how to apply ethnographic information about family-forest owners to the design of conservation policy for Oregon white oak in the Willamette Valley, Oregon (U.S.A.). We examined owners' knowledge, beliefs, values, and socioeconomic contexts through in-depth individual and focus-group interviews to understand their motivations to conserve oak. We then used Schneider and Ingram's (1990) policy analysis framework to compare owners' motivations to the logic of policy. Owners had complex motivations for conserving oak. Despite this complexity, all 5 categories of policy that Schneider and Ingram describe hold promise. Policies that use symbolism to inspire behavior and policies that build capacity can harness owners' stewardship ethics and moral obligations. Policies that offer tangible rewards can build on owners' utilitarian motives. Policies that permit and prohibit behavior can tap owners' concerns about rule violations. Policies that promote voluntary, collaborative efforts can accommodate owners' need for autonomy and flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores the mental and biophysical terrains of family forest owners' relationships with biodiversity. We used concept mapping, in-depth unstructured interviews, property mapping, and field observation to explore owners' knowledge, beliefs and management approaches. We conducted our research in one watershed in the Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana) ecotype of western Oregon, an ecotype that is considered at risk. The owners in our sample are knowledgeable about the concept of biodiversity and believe they should steward the biodiversity of their forests through management. However, their notion of biodiversity appears to be quite generic, rather than specific to the oak ecotype in which they own land. Moreover, external economic and social forces encourage them to manage for Douglas fir rather than oak. Extending Schneider and Ingram's (1990) theoretical policy framework to conservation, we propose ways for policy to address these limitations and build on owners' motivations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooperation across ownership boundaries is critical to most conservation efforts in mixed-ownership landscapes. Where owner objectives vary widely, as at publicprivate land ownership boundaries, cooperation can be especially challenging. This research explores the opportunities and challenges for cooperative fire management among public and private forest managers in the John Day Valley of eastern Oregon, an arid and fire-dependent region dominated by large federal ownerships and private ranches. Data were derived from indepth interviews with public and private land managers, ranchers, forest industry representatives, environmental activists, community leaders, and others. Through a process of theoretical coding, five themes affecting cross-boundary cooperation were identified: land tenure, power, ideology, uncertainty, and trust. These themes illuminate the complexity involved in cross-boundary cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although studies show that actions by property owners, such as maintaining a defensible space, are generally the best means of protecting property from wildfire, victims often blame government agencies and others for property damage, injury, and death. This article describes a multiple-methods approach for investigating factors that influence how people who experience wildfire perceive the cause of wildfire damage. Phase I and II mail surveys and real-time field interviews were conducted in communities on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. Generally speaking, people who had experienced wildfire attributed damage to other people's actions more than people who had not. Whether residents incurred damage or not, having maintained a sense of control or interacting with firefighters also appears to have influenced attributions. We argue that multiple-methods approaches to such questions have the potential to reveal more about such phenomena than approaches based on any single method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents observations from community-based ecosystem monitoring activities throughout the U.S. Factors leading to the emergence of community-based ecosystem monitoring; Details on multiparty monitoring; Role of multiparty monitoring in building social capital; Challenges in community-based monitoring.

Alabama used property tax abatements extensively to recruit the pulp and paper industry that became the foundation of the state's economy. Our objective is to evaluate the tax abatement policy and its impact on local public education from the perspectives of key local leaders. Data include historical secondary data, a mail survey, and interviews with stakeholders in pulp and paper mill counties. Although tax incentives influenced individual companys' decisions to locate in particular communities, abundant wood, water, labor, and transportation resources were the principle factors attracting the industry to the South. Despite the economic stimulus of the mills, communities that used generous recruitment packages continue to lag behind other rural counties, the state, and the nation. Tax abatements, coupled with low property taxes, adversely affect funding for local public education. Under investment in human capital, we conclude, is the primary obstacle to the further development of these rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the literature on land concentration and well being and forest ownership patterns in the state of Alabama. Possible relevance of such patterns to economic, social land environmental well-being; Research agenda for measuring forestland concentration; Hypothetical relationships between forest tenure and rural well-being.

A case-study approach was used to understand the role of social capital in the cycle of adaptive capacity in three rural, forest communities in Washington State. The study reveals social capital to be a critical ingredient in the resolution of diverse community development events. The findings enhance our understanding of the impacts of social capital on community outcomes by dividing the concept into three types—bonding, bridging, and linking social capital. Social capital does not translate linearly into community outcomes. Generally, community members stressed the importance of bridging social capital to achieve community-wide desired outcomes. Yet strong bridging social capital had no potency when linking social capital with key power brokers was absent. Finally, the case-study approach reveals how social capital is created and can be built up or depleted. The findings are applicable to community development practitioners, rural community leaders, and public land managers that interface with forest communities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The increase in collaborative projects involving American Indian tribes and natural resource management agencies in the United States reflects two emergent trends: 1) the use of collaborative approaches between agencies and groups in managing natural resources; and 2) the concurrent increased recognition of American Indian rights, institutionalization of consultation processes, and a general movement of Indian self-determination. This article focuses on institutional mechanisms that bring together tribes and natural resource management agencies in collaborative processes to achieve mutually desired resource management objectives. Using qualitative analysis of data from ten collaborative projects across the United States, we identify attributes of collaborative arrangements emerging from tribal-federal collaboration: decision-making authority; transfer of funds from agency to the tribe(s); the level of mutual dependency; the sharing or transfer of various forms of knowledge, including scientific and cultural; and responsibility for conducting management field work. Examining the similarities and differences across the attributes, we characterize the projects into five types (co-management, contractual, cooperative, working relationship, and conservation easement), and find that considerable variation exists in the forms and functions of tribal-federal collaborative arrangements. We explore two types of collaborative arrangements in more depth to better understand what factors influence the integration of traditional ecological knowledge. Comparing gray wolf (Canis lupus) recovery in Idaho and forest restoration in northern California, we find that traditional ecological knowledge was a key factor in initiating both collaborative projects, but also that the application of traditional ecological knowledge on-the-ground differed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alabama's forest products industry plays a dominant role in the state's rural economy. Examination of how access to employment opportunities is distributed provides insight into how the benefits of this industry are distributed. Based on a combination of available secondary data and semi-structured interviews with management and workers in the pulp and paper sector of Alabama's forest products industry, a clear picture of segmented labor markets emerges in which structural and cultural factors determine access to certain jobs. The evolution of these highly segmented labor markets is traced from deep roots in racial discrimination to contemporary efforts in support of affirmative anion. Increased use of sub-contracting in logging, hauling, and mill work represents the must recent change affecting the structure of labor markets associated with the production of pulp and paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]