Search

Deer hunting is a major forest-based recreation activity in the US South. However, the recent discovery of chronic wasting disease (CWD) threatens deer hunting in the region. Stakeholders are interested in understanding how hunters perceive the risk and change their hunting behavior. This study found a significant change in hunters’ concerns after the first deer season since the discovery of CWD in Tennessee, USA. Results also showed that hunters’ short- and long-term intentions to hunt deer in the region were positively related to previous experience of hunting in CWD-affected areas, beliefs in the effectiveness of herd reduction to control CWD, concerns regarding potential decline in deer quality and changes in hunting regulations due to CWD, and trust in wildlife agency action. Hunters who hunt on public land and were concerned with deer and human health risk were less likely to hunt in the CWD region. These results are useful in understanding hunter behavior in response to wildlife disease and identifying variables that may help project immediate as well as long-term change in hunting demand in affected regions.

Insufficient funding is a major impediment to conservation efforts around the world. In the United States, a decline in hunting participation threatens sustainability of the “user‐pay, public benefit” model that has supported wildlife conservation for nearly 100 years, forcing wildlife management agencies to contemplate alternative funding strategies. We investigated support for potential funding options among diverse college students, a rapidly expanding and politically active voting bloc with a potentially powerful influence on the future of conservation. From 2018 to 2020, we surveyed 17,203 undergraduate students at public universities across 22 states. Students preferred innovative approaches to conservation funding, with 72% supporting funding derived from industry sources (e.g., natural resource extraction companies), 63% supporting state sources (e.g., general sales tax), and 43% supporting conventional user‐based sources such as license fees and excise taxes associated with outdoor recreation activities (e.g., hunting). Findings emphasize the need to broaden the base of support for conservation funding and highlight the importance of considering the preferences and perspectives of young adults and other diverse beneficiaries of wildlife conservation.

Prescribed burning is a widely used tool in forest and grassland management. However, because fire that escapes from a prescribed burn accidentally may cause property damage, injuries, and even human casualties, purchasing insurance to cover such damages may be beneficial for prescribed burn practitioners. Given that insurance coverage for prescribed fire is recently emerging, factors that determine burners’ decisions to purchase such insurance are largely unknown. On the basis of data from a survey of prescribed burn practitioners in 14 southern and midwestern states, we modeled prescribed burners’ likelihood of purchasing insurance with respect to demographic characteristics, land management objectives, and importance placed on regulatory compliance and land use practices. Results suggest that prescribed burn practitioners are more likely to obtain such insurance if they are landowners themselves or have a written prescribed burn plan. Age of respondents and the level of importance they place on compliance with environmental laws also had a significant positive effect on the likelihood of obtaining insurance coverage. Respondents were less likely to purchase insurance if their land management objective was to control invasive plants or they considered the availability of lower-cost alternatives for woody plant removal an important factor in deciding whether or not to conduct prescribed burns. These findings shed light on underlying factors influencing insurance coverage for prescribed burning and are potentially beneficial for promoting the acquisition of insurance among burn practitioners.

Family forest landowners in the United States have diverse ownership and management objectives. Assessing and monitoring regional patterns and trends in landowner motivations and management behavior may aid in understanding the conservation and economic implications of social change. This paper presents a regional analysis of family forest landowners in the southern United States by combining a GIS-based exploratory data analysis with spatially explicit information on landowner motivations and management behavior data obtained from the U.S. Forest Service National Woodland Owners Survey (NWOS). Results reveal that spatial autocorrelation was present in motivations reflecting tangible and pecuniary benefits (e.g. timber, investment, hunting), but not in motivations reflecting intangible and non-pecuniary benefits (e.g. privacy, beauty). Statistically significant clusters of landowners with similar motivations and management behaviors (i.e., hotspots/coldspots) were identified using local indicators of spatial association and visualized in a series of maps to discuss their policy and management implications. The findings are useful in understanding regional variations as well as concentrations in landownership motivation, management activities, and will guide stakeholders in locating areas of interest for conservation planning, strategic marketing, and education and outreach.

Growing public demand for cleaner technologies and alternative energy sources has challenged the sustainability of traditional industries like coal mining. Public support for mining in rural communities may depend partly on how local residents perceive its impacts on their well-being. Nonetheless, community perceptions of and attitudes toward mining have received limited empirical attention. This study surveyed long-term residents of predominantly mining counties in eastern Kentucky to assess how residents perceive environmental change and subjective well-being relative to mining activities and how the perceived impacts of mining and their confidence in reclamation influence their support for public policies regulating surface mining. While residents noted some changes in natural environment conditions over the years, mining operations were not perceived as responsible factor for those changes. We also found that surface mining currently enjoys overwhelming public support, mainly because local residents view mining as part of their community identity and are skeptical about environmental concerns relative to the benefit mining brings. Occupation in mining, perceived past impact, and future risk were all negatively related to subjective well-being. Support for regulations to stop surface mining in the region was significantly impacted by perceived risks and benefits, confidence in reclamation efforts, attitudes toward the mining industry, and trust in local institutions. Considering the ongoing policy debates surrounding cleaner technology and concerns for economic growth in rural areas, this study provides insights on community perception and acceptability of surface mining that will inform policy making and regional development planning in southern Appalachia and similar regions.

Wild hogs (Sus scrofa) are an invasive, non-native species quickly gaining ground on private, as well as public, lands in Tennessee and much of the United States. Wildlife management personnel may benefit from assessing stakeholders’ views towards various management options to control and eradicate wild hogs. A statewide mail survey of 5000 randomly selected landowners in Tennessee counties known to have wild hogs yielded 1620 completed responses (33% response rate). Using this dataset, an index of potential for conflict among landowner groups was computed for each of eleven management options, which varied from leaving the wild hogs alone, to both lethal and non-lethal options. Results indicate varying levels of potential for conflict depending on hunter status, wild hog hunter status, presence of wild hogs on land, percent of income derived from land, and amount of land damage caused by wild hogs. Overall, three management options including leaving the wild hogs alone, allowing sale of wild hogs, and capturing and relocating were found unacceptable whereas many other options including capturing and killing, providing technical assistance to landowners and educating people on preventing damage were found to have high level of acceptability and most consensus among landowner subgroups. Findings will be useful in understanding how support for wild hog control options vary across population segments, and which options are likely to see more or less resistance from certain landowners.

Mountain ecosystems are considered vulnerable to early impacts of climate change. Whether and how local residents of these areas perceive these changes, however, remain under-studied questions. By conducting a household survey in the Khumbu region of Nepal, this study assessed local residents’ experience-based perception of changes in climate trends and patterns, perceived risk, and attitudes towards climate issues. Multivariate cluster analysis based on residents’ climate change beliefs revealed three segments: “Cautious,” “Disengaged,” and “Alarmed.” A comparison of these segments along key psychosocial constructs of Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) revealed significant inter-segment differences in residents’ perception of severity, vulnerability, response efficacy, self-efficacy, and response cost associated with engaging in mitigating behavior. Results shed light on how residents of high elevation areas that are considered to be exposed to early impacts of climate change perceive the risk and intend to respond. These findings could also assist stakeholders working in other similar mountain ecosystems in understanding vulnerability and in working towards climate readiness. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s13280-020-01369-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Achieving sustainable management of forests in China is becoming increasingly important with more awareness and realization of the importance of forests in environmental protection. Forest certification, a market-based instrument to promote sustainable forest management, has been recognized by many countries including China. While landowners&rsquo, perception and perspective regarding this voluntary program have been well-documented in the literature, how to motivate and incentivize landowners to participate in forest certification remained understudied questions. With the face-to-face survey of landowners in Shandong, China, this study analyzed landowners&rsquo, willingness to accept compensation for participating in forest certification. Results indicated that the average accepted compensation in terms of increased timber price was about RMB 120 (~USD 17.6)/m3 to have their forests enrolled in certification programs. Results from multiple regression showed that the level of such compensation required for participation in certification was influenced by forestland size, owner demographics, certification-program requirements, and importance placed on timber production. These findings would inform policy-makers in designing compensation-related policies and establish incentive-based mechanisms to motivate forest landowners to participate in forest certification programs in China.

With increasing competition and rising operational costs, golf course managers are focusing on innovative approaches that can help attract and retain visitors. Therefore, understanding economic rationale for landscape improvement can help managers to prioritize operational budget. The purpose of this study was to identify the determinants of golfers' repeated visitation to public golf courses and understand economic rationale for aesthetic quality improvement in public golf facilities. We surveyed golf course visitors at Lakeside Memorial Golf Course, a municipal facility in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Study results suggest that golfers' frequency to revisit was positively influenced by prestige of the facility and course design. The willingness to pay (WTP) estimates, which accounted for respondent's maximum propensity to pay above already paid green fees, for winter turfgrass enhancements were about two times higher than their estimated costs. Study results suggested landscape improvement strategies and provided several recommendations to golf course management.

Promoting the sustainable agricultural practices at an individual farm level is essential to ensure agricultural sustainability. This study analyzed whether and how various factors related to farm or farmers' characteristics influence the adoption intensity of sustainable agriculture practices. We used a negative binomial regression model to fit the data collected from a mail survey of farmers in Kentucky, USA. Our results showed that the adoption intensity of sustainable agriculture practices varied significantly among agricultural districts in Kentucky. Farmers who grew row crops, had irrigation facilities, and were in favor of crop diversification were significantly more likely than their respective counterparts to adopt more sustainable agriculture practices. Similarly, having a college education and participating in the Tobacco Buyout Program also positively and significantly affected the intensity of adopting sustainable agriculture practices among Kentucky farmers. In contrast, a lack of adequate knowledge about sustainable farming and an unfamiliarity with technology significantly and negatively related to less adoption of sustainable agriculture practices.

Modeling and projecting timber supply requires a good understanding of how supply responds to price. The price elasticity of supply (PELS) reported in the literature varies greatly, indicating that conclusions regarding price signaling in the timber market are mixed. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to determine the key factors associated with the heterogeneity of PELS of primary timber product supply by examining data from numerous studies conducted around the world. Twelve “moderator” variables were examined to explore differences in PELS. Moderators with significant impacts on variation of PELS included forest products, geographic regions, econometric models, and data type. Furthermore, two-level categorical variables contained within the econometric models including standing stock were found to have significant influence on the heterogeneity of PELS. Variation in PELS also depended on whether or not the supply models accounted for price inflation, and the time period when the study was...

Fouts KL, Poudyal, NC, Moore R, Herrin J, Wilde, SB. 2017. Informed stakeholder support for managing invasive Hydrilla verticillata linked to wildlife deaths in a Southeastern reservoir. Lake Reserve Manage. 00:1–10. Public opinion surveys prior to implementing management actions provide managing agencies with a detailed understanding of stakeholders' attitudes and help inform the general public on the complexity of potential management actions. Like many other Southeastern U.S. reservoirs, J. Strom Thurmond (JST), on the border of Georgia and South Carolina, has been infested with nonnative hydrilla (Hydrilla verticillata). Avian Vacuolar Myelinopathy (AVM), a fatal wildlife disease linked to a neurotoxic cyanobacterial species growing on hydrilla, has been documented on this 28,733-ha reservoir since 1998, when the hydrilla acreage first exceeded 350 ha. As of 2016, 90 bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) mortalities and hundreds of waterfowl deaths have been attributed to AVM disease on JST. To assess and compare the diverse stakeholders' attitudes toward aquatic vegetation, knowledge of AVM, and support for management actions to remove hydrilla, a mail survey was conducted targeting various JST user groups (anglers, boaters, campers, waterfowl hunters, and shoreline property owners). Generally, respondents were overwhelmingly in favor of reducing hydrilla density on JST, but shoreline permit holders (homeowners) were significantly more supportive of hydrilla management than boaters. Similarly, all user groups supported management actions to remove aquatic vegetation, including stocking triploid sterile grass carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella). Support for removing hydrilla was found to be significantly higher among users knowledgeable of AVM, suggesting that outreach activities educating the public on the effects and prevention of the disease would help enhance stakeholder support for hydrilla removal and management in public reservoirs.

This paper estimates the relationship between green space and body mass index (BMI) in the U.S. We find that accounting for the heterogeneity of green space matters: BMI is significantly lower in counties with larger forestland per-capita, but not in those more abundant in rangeland, pastureland or cropland. This is after controlling for state-specific heterogeneity, and a range of environmental and natural amenities, including the presence of state parks, proximity to national parks, and outdoor recreation resources in the county, all of which have the expected negative correlation with BMI. Hence, the findings suggest that forests, public recreation lands, along with publicly available outdoor recreation resources can be valuable resources to help reduce obesity and associated public health problems.

Big game hunting on private leased forestland is popular in Georgia and other parts of the southern United States. Very often, the leasing arrangement takes the form of a club, wherein a specified number of members pay an annual fee to either a landowner or the club's manager to have a certain bundle of access rights in accordance with other club regulations or attributes. Currently, little is formally known about hunter preferences for club characteristics. The objective of this study was to identify hunter preferences for attributes related to big game hunting clubs and to derive measures of economic value for these attributes. This was accomplished by conducting a choice experiment (CE) via a mail survey in 2012 of licensed big game hunters in Georgia. The CE presented respondents with alternative hunting clubs representing different combinations of attributes including acreage, membership number, harvest regulations, recent forest management activity, and annual club dues. Responses were analyzed with conditional logit and multinomial probit regression models. Consistent with economic theory, hunters preferred more acreage and fewer members. The least preferred harvest regulation was a one buck limit without size restriction while recent clearcutting was the least preferred forest management activity. Results should provide a better understanding of big game hunters' preferences and trade-offs for club attributes and should help landowners and club managers make management decisions that enhance the value of their resources.

With growing public interest in ecosystem restoration, wildlife agencies in the U.S. and around the world have adopted wildlife reintroduction program as a conservation strategy. In addition to their ecological benefits, stakeholders are often interested in economic benefits of wildlife reintroduction such as hunting opportunities once a viable population is established. Even though the trip-based travel cost models are widely used in economic valuation of hunting access, such models are not applicable in valuation of sites of recent restoration, where hunting opportunities are limited. With the case of recently completed elk restoration in Tennessee, USA, this study characterizes the economic benefit of hunting opportunity resulting from reintroduction. In doing so, it also presents a procedure to estimate the economic benefit of current use and unmet demand associated with hunting opportunities generated from a wildlife reintroduction program. The annual net economic benefit associated with current use and value of unmet demand is found to be over $2 million. The study also demonstrates the viability of permit-based models in producing reliable estimates of economic benefit of recreation access where demand is lottery-rationed or trip profile data is unavailable.

While the growing literature on forest ecosystem services has examined the value and significance of a range of services, our understanding of the health-related benefits of ecosystem services from forests is still limited. To characterize the role of forest resources in reducing community vulnerability to the heat effects of climate change, a general index of heat vulnerability (HEVI) was developed through Principle Components Analysis (PCA) and subsequently used within ANVOA and Poisson regression to assess the relationship between the amount and type of forest resources (species, management regime, spatial pattern) and a county's vulnerability to the heat effects of climate change. Results of the ANOVA showed significant differences in the extent and characteristics of forests among counties experiencing different levels of heat vulnerability. The Poisson regression using county heat mortality as the dependent variable found forest characteristics to have a significant influence on heat mortality when other determinants of vulnerability were controlled. A negative and significant relationship was specifically found between forest area and heat related mortality, which supports the hypothesis that the extent of forest coverage helps to alleviate vulnerability associated with heat effects. These findings have important implications for understanding the role of forest ecosystem services in reducing a community's vulnerability to the heat effects of climate change. Findings will also be useful in guiding land use planning and preserving desirable forest characteristics to help communities adapt to climate change.

This study employed a cross-country panel data model to investigate the relative contributions of sociopolitical, natural and cultural characteristics and national tourism policies to international tourism growth. International tourism receipt data were adjusted for country-specific inflation and then analyzed in relation to standardized measures of the World Economic Forum’s “pillars of tourism competitiveness.” Results indicated that international tourism receipts are more responsive to policies and regulations favoring tourism, abundance of natural resources, richness in cultural heritage, and health and hygiene than they are to infrastructure, safety, price competitiveness, and other variables. Findings highlight key factors associated with international tourism receipts and provide a general framework that could inform policies and management strategies designed to promote sustainable international tourism development.

While prescribed burning is a proven tool in the management of forests and grasslands, its use has been limited due, in part, to potential risks that may result in legal liability, property damage, and personal injury. The purpose of this study is to understand the factors that shape landowners' and fire professionals' perceptions of risks associated with prescribed burning activities. The data for this study were collected from active prescribed fire professionals involved in Prescribed Burn Association (PBA) activities in 14 Southern and Mid-western states. Perceived risk was higher among respondents with higher levels of concern related to safety and weather but lower among respondents with more experience in burning activities. Sociodemographic variables such as age and income were not significantly correlated with risk perception. These findings are useful for better understanding how landowners and fire professionals perceive risk and offer insight into how perceived risk affects decisions to apply prescribed burns.

Despite its widespread recognition as a successful model of participatory forest management, the community forestry program in Nepal is often criticized for its protection-oriented emphasis. Recognizing the need for more active timber management, the government of Nepal recently adopted a scientific forest management (SFM) policy in the lowland tropical region. In this study, strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat analytical hierarchical process criteria were employed to understand stakeholder perceptions concerning SFM implementation in Nepal. The overall perception was prioritized in the order of strengths (35%), threats (28%), opportunities (22%), and weaknesses (16%). The study results suggest that there is agreement among stakeholders regarding the need for active management of forests in the tropical lowland region. However, the perceptions of academic researchers and non-government organization professionals differed from those of the other stakeholders in that those two groups were more concerned about potential corruption and uncertainties surrounding policy and legal issues. The findings suggest that the long-term success of SFM may depend on the ability of the government to develop a mechanism that is transparent and capable of ensuring equitable benefit sharing among stakeholders. While the stakeholder perception analysis performed in this study was focused on SFM implementation in Nepal, the results could have implications for other countries that practice the participatory model of forest governance as well.

Private forests provide a range of ecosystem services for society including provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services. Sustaining the supply of such services depends on the interest of nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners in managing their forests for such services. Assessing factors that influence NIPF landowner intentions would be useful in identifying potential suppliers of ecosystem services and in designing and implementing outreach and education programs to elevate the interests of less interested landowners. Using data collected from a mail survey of NIPF landowners on the Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee, this study examined how landowner interest in supplying ecosystem services was influenced by socio-demographic characteristics, economic and market factors, land management objectives, and ownership motivations. To that end, a multivariate logistic regression model was employed to analyze the supply of three types of ecosystem services: carbon storage (regulating service), water quality (provisioning service), and aesthetics (cultural service). Results revealed that landowner interest in managing forests for ecosystem services were significantly related to socio-demographic factors, management and ownership characteristics, and availability of financial incentives. These findings will improve the understanding of the market segment of landowners as related to ecosystem services. The findings may facilitate the development of market protocols and outreach programs that promote payments for ecosystem services in Tennessee and elsewhere.

Recently, the US forest product industry has seen remarkable shifts in market demand for traditional forest products. The displacement of paper demand by new electronic media and communica...

Wild hogs (Sus scrofa) are an invasive species with destructive habits, particularly rooting and wallowing, which can directly impact agricultural crops, pasture land, and water quality. Considering wild hogs are widely dispersed across the landscape, they are extremely difficult to control. Disagreements can arise among different stakeholders over whether and how their populations should be managed. The purpose of this article was to examine Tennessee, United States landowners' attitudes toward wild hogs, to compare acceptability of control methods, and to evaluate factors significantly influencing public support for regulations to control wild hogs. Logistic regression was employed to analyze data collected from a statewide survey of rural landowners in the fall of 2015. Landowners had overwhelmingly negative attitudes towards wild hogs, and were concerned about their impact on the natural environment and rural economy. Although landowners showed support for controlling wild hogs, levels of acceptability for management options varied. Respondents favored active management and supported education and incentive-based control programs to control wild hogs. Cognitive concepts such as social and personal norms and awareness of consequences, as well as demographic characteristics, significantly predicted landowners' support for state regulations to control wild hogs in Tennessee. Findings increase our understanding of the human dimensions of wild hog management and that of other similarly invasive animals, and may guide resource managers in designing effective and socially acceptable management strategies to control wild hog populations in Tennessee and elsewhere.

This article presents data from a recent mail survey of forest landowners regarding their land ownership characteristics and motivations, past and future management activities, and owner perceptions of bioenergy and its impact on forests. The data presented in this article are related to the research article entitled ‘Opportunities and Attitudes of Private Forest Landowners in Supplying Woody Biomass for Renewable Energy’ [1]. The survey was conducted in the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the United States, where two primary ports exporting wood pellets to Europe are located. Specifically, the data include responses on forest characteristics, forest management activities, knowledge and interest in woody biomass for energy production, and sociodemographic variables. Additionally, landowner decisions for supplying wood for traditional forest products and biomass for energy were modeled. More than 2900 forest landowners were contacted, with 707 owners providing completed surveys. Keywords: Woody biomass supply, Bioenergy, Private forest management, Renewable fuel, Sustainability

Woody biomass has been identified as a source of dispatchable, renewable energy. Private lands supply the majority of the wood-based pellets that is produced in the southeastern United States (SE US) and shipped to countries in the European Union (EU) for energy generation. To assess the perspectives of potential suppliers of woody biomass in the SE US, nonindustrial private forest landowners were surveyed in the fuelsheds of the two primary ports for wood pellets exported to the EU. The survey assessed owners' characteristics, attitudes, and future management plans. Survey results were examined to explore the relationships among these factors and owners' intentions for providing material for wood-based energy. The results indicate that forest landowners have multiple reasons for maintaining their forest land, with more than 40% of the owners ranking timber production as a very important reason. Furthermore, the majority of landowners would be willing to provide woody biomass for producing bioenergy. Among factors that would enhance landowners' willingness to provide woody biomass for energy, technical assistance to improve stand productivity and future value was the most popular option, followed by reducing fire and disease risk, long-term markets, and high prices. Landowner willingness to provide woody material for bioenergy also varied depending on demographics including age and gender, property characteristics including holding size and distance to residence, and perceptions regarding the impact on forest value of wood pellet demand and the viability of bioenergy as an alternative to fossil energy.

This paper presents a hedonic property price model of rural land in a natural resource management region of the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia. In traditional hedonic models, the marginal value of environmental amenities is estimated using distance to or size of the environmental asset. The approach applied in this study offers the potential for a richer set of information, where environmental assets are described in terms of their 'recreational attractiveness'. The level of recreational attractiveness is represented as latent variables that are based on park facilities and recreational activities offered at each site. For a property in the study area that is 1 km away from the River Murray, moving half a kilometre closer will increase the property price by $245,000, holding every other variable constant at the mean. This value is magnified by $27,000 if the house is in an area where there is high river recreational attractiveness and drops by $14,000 if river recreational attractiveness is low. By including recreational quality indices in a typical hedonic framework that is corrected for spatial dependency, the model is able to capture how individuals value environmental amenities around their homes based on the site's natural characteristics as well as recreational services.

To better understand how businesses' motivation and support for green projects varies by their organizational objectives and characteristics, this study investigates a case of urban forestry carbon credits in a broader context of climate change mitigation efforts. Companies and organizations currently participating in the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) were surveyed regarding their perception of consumers' concerns with climate change, attitudes toward government regulations, factors important to their emission management decisions, and their interest in buying and paying premiums for carbon credits sourced from urban forestry. Statistical analysis of the responses reveals noticeable differences among various types of business organizations. The findings are useful for understanding how businesses respond to different kinds of green products and will help in the development of green product markets. Finally, the results will help in developing effective environmental policies that respond well to businesses' objectives and preferences. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Forest certification is considered a viable market-based policy instrument to promote forest sustainability. It has an important role of play in meeting the objective of modern forestry development in China, which is to sustain ecological and environmental benefits of forests. To understand differences in attitudes, opinions, and interests in forest certification, this study segmented respondents of a landowner&rsquo, s survey in Shandong, China based on their level of interest in participating in forest certification under different program requirements. Multivariate cluster analysis revealed three distinct groups: likely-, potential-, and unlikely-landowners. We further examined the heterogeneity of these groups in terms of their demographics, ownership characteristics, management objectives, and perceived benefits and challenges of adopting forest certification. The results suggested the necessity of differentiating landowners in formulating and designing specific motivation-based incentives and tailoring outreach efforts and communication strategies to improve their interests in forest certification. Findings will be useful and interesting to forest policymakers interested in promoting forest certification among landowners in China and other countries facing similar circumstances.

Existing literature on nonmarket valuation indicates an ambiguous value of the view of a forest due largely to the fact that these studies relied on inappropriate proxies or poor measures of forest view. The current study attempts to fill this gap by using GIS to measure the actual forest area that is visible from a house and then using a hedonic regression model to examine how its value is reflected in residential housing price. A spatial hedonic model of residential housing price was applied to housing sales data in a forested landscape located in the southeastern portion of Cheatham County and the adjacent Scottsboro-Bells Bend area of Davidson County, near Nashville, Tennessee. Results indicate that increasing the size of forest area visible from a house by 1 ac increased the house price by $30. The findings imply that residents place a significant value on and likely pay a price premium to preserve the view of a forest. Findings from this study could be useful in evaluating viewshed protection policies as a hedge against development pressures that threaten the forested landscapes and in designing market protocols for scenic view as an ecosystem service.

Increasing criticism of resource-extractive and polluting heavy duty industries in urban areas, as well as continuing declines in timbering, farming and mining in rural areas, have created challenges for planners and policy makers seeking sustainable rural economies. Earlier studies have concluded that a “retiree economy” is a viable approach for rural economic sustainability. Using specific measures of natural amenities that are variant over time; this study examined the role that natural amenity resources have played in attracting retirees. Results reveal that the rural and biologically rich counties with substantial land use diversity, water amenities, and other man-modified natural and recreational attractions have great potential for attracting retirees. The findings from this study can be useful for local and regional agencies to identity their latent potential to promote retiree economy, and also to predict the future amenity demands. In addition, we draw other policy implications regarding regional economic growth and ecological concern in rural America.

Hunting is an important but declining activity in the Southeastern United States. Although our understanding of what causes this decline is incomplete, the period of decline coincided with rapid urbanization in the region. Urban sprawl, which is changing sociocultural traditions and leisure patterns, may be a driver in declines in hunting. Therefore, using county-level data for the Southeastern United States, we developed a log-linear demand model of hunting to estimate effects of urban sprawl on hunting. Results suggest that an increase in urban population and dispersal of low-density residential development in the wildland reduced hunting participation in the region. This implies that feasibility and effectiveness of hunting as a wildlife management tool may decrease if the current urbanization trend persists in the region. Results also suggest a need to promote hunting within urban populations and for maintaining hunting opportunities by promoting tighter management of urban sprawl to conserve huntable areas, increasing public hunting land, and possibly increasing public access to private lands.

The impact of an urban growth boundary (UGB) on land development in Knox County, TN is estimated via two-stage probit and neural-network models. The insignificance of UGB variable in the two-stage probit model and more visible development patterns in the western part of Knoxville and the neighboring town of Farragut during the post-UGB period in both models suggest that the UGB has not curtailed urban sprawl. Although the network model is found to be a viable alternative to more conventional discrete choice approach for improving the predictability of land development, it is at the cost of evaluating marginal effects.

This study explores the spatial association between social vulnerability and smoke plume dispersion at the census block group level for the 13 southern states in the USDA Forest Service’s Region 8. Using environmental justice as a conceptual basis, we use Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis to identify clusters or “hot spots” for the incidence of both higher than average socially marginal populations and plume dispersion. The larger health disparities and environmental justice literature suggests that lower income and minority populations in the U.S. face greater exposure than middle/upper income, non-minority populations to environmental pollutants, however, we are aware of only a few studies examining this relationship in the context of population exposure to wildfires or prescribed fires in the U.S. South, despite the high occurrence of wildfires in the region. Analyses were conducted across five ecoregions in the South and for winter and spring/summer seasons. Results by ecoregion show significant spatial clustering of high social vulnerability block groups in the vicinity of block groups with a high number of smoke plumes (i.e., “hot spots”). Overall, however, socially vulnerable communities are not exposed to more smoke than non-socially vulnerable communities. Data limitations and suggestions for further research are discussed.

In addition to encouraging people to become more physically active and healthy, participation in outdoor recreation helps to expose people to different instances of environmental degradation in places where they recreate. This exposure may also help people to become more environmentally aware and subsequently informed about environmental conservation programs such as conservation easements. Hence, this paper examined whether people participating in outdoor recreation activities have also placed their lands in conservation easements. Using national level data from the National Survey on Recreation and the Environment (NSRE) people who participated in land-based and water-based recreation activities were examined and grouped into consumptive and non-consumptive activities. Results indicated people who participated in land-based non-consumptive recreations have greater odds of placing their lands in conservation easements than people who participated in consumptive recreation activities.

1.1 Urban forestry in the United States: Status and scope The United States has observed unprecedented urban growth over the last few decades. Nowak et al. (2005) noted that between 1990 and 2000, the share of urban land area in the nation increased from 2.5% to 3.1%. Existing urban areas in the U.S. maintain average tree coverage of 27% (Nowak et al. 2001), and consist of millions of trees along streets and in parks, riparian buffers, and other public areas. Further, Walton and Nowak (2005) predicted that this urban area will continue to expand through 2050, eventually covering up to 8.1% of the country’s area. Some of the expected urban development will come at the expense of currently forested areas. This may further the scope of afforestation and subsequent reforestation as part of urban forest management. Increasing with the area of urban land is the geographical coverage of urban forests. Urban areas nationwide support more than 3.8 billion trees (Nowak et al. 2002), whereas as many as 70 billion trees are estimated to be growing in the urban and urbanizing areas throughout the nation (Bratkovich et al. 2008). A brief look at urban tree inventory data at individual state and city levels confirms that urban trees are a significant component of forest resources at local and regional levels. Table 1 presents canopy coverage and tree inventory data for five selected states and cities to illustrate the relative stocking of urban trees at individual state and municipal level (Nowak et al. 2001). Some of the states have smaller urban canopy coverage, but are densely stocked. Recent urban forest inventories also suggest that there is substantial variation of tree stocks among the United States cities, which ranges from roughly 15 trees per acre in Jersey City, New Jersey to about 113 trees per acre in Atlanta, Georgia (Nowak et al. 2010).

Wildland fire in the South commands considerable attention, given the expanding wildland urban interface (WUI) across the region. Much of this growth is propelled by higher income retirees and others desiring natural amenity residential settings. However, population growth in the WUI increases the likelihood of wildfire fire ignition caused by people, as humans account for 93% of all wildfires fires in the South. Coexisting with newly arrived, affluent WUI populations are working class, poor or otherwise socially vulnerable populations. The latter groups typically experience greater losses from environmental disasters such as wildfire because lower income residents are less likely to have established mitigation programs in place to help absorb loss. We use geographically weighted regression to examine spatial variation in the association between social vulnerability (SOVUL) and wildfire risk. In doing so, we identify "hot spots" or geographical clusters where SOVUL varies positively with wildfire risk across six Southern states--Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina. These clusters may or may not be located in the WUI. These hot spots are most prevalent in South Carolina and Florida. Identification of these population clusters can aid wildfire managers in deciding which communities to prioritize for mitigation programming.