• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Search Projects
  • Help
  • Log in

Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education

Grants And Education To Advance Innovations In Sustainable Agriculture
  • Grants
  • Project Reports
    • Search Projects
    • Search Project Coordinators
  • Learning Center
  • SARE In Your State
  • Events
  • Newsroom
  • About SARE

Project Overview

LS01-129
Project Type: Research and Education
Funds awarded in 2001: $169,875.00
Projected End Date: 12/31/2003
Region: Southern
State: Mississippi
Principal Investigator:
Glenn Hughes
Email
Mississippi State University Extension Service

Developing Strategies for Education of Underserved Forest Landowners

View the project final report

Annual Reports

  • 2001 annual report
  • 2002 annual report

Commodities

  • Additional Plants: trees, ornamentals

Practices

  • Crop Production: forestry
  • Education and Training: technical assistance, extension, focus group, participatory research
  • Farm Business Management: budgets/cost and returns, agricultural finance, value added
  • Natural Resources/Environment: afforestation, habitat enhancement, riparian buffers, riverbank protection, wetlands, wildlife
  • Sustainable Communities: new business opportunities, partnerships, public participation, analysis of personal/family life, social networks, sustainability measures

Abstract:

A multi-state, multi-institutional research and education effort promoted sustainable forest management to underserved landowners in the South-Central U.S. This research and extension effort involved 1862 and 1890 land grant institutions, consultant foresters, landowners, state and federal agencies, and others in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Twelve focus group sessions were conducted during 2002 and involved 97 landowners. Focus group information provided the basis for developing the mail questionnaire. Mail questionnaires (n=6,000) were used to gather information about landowner educational needs pertaining to forest management. Sixteen forest landowner workshops were attended by 1,302 landowners that valued the information received at $6.8 million. The project produced a workshop format that can be used as a template for successful educational programs in almost any state.

Project objectives:

The long-term goal of this project was to enhance the management of farm and forestland owned by underserved landowners in the South-Central U.S. This required more knowledge of underserved landowners, what motivates them, their management experiences, and the marketing techniques they use in selling timber. This knowledge will enable us to develop and implement effective programming techniques designed to meet the needs of this audience. Improving basic marketing skills will lead to enhanced economic viability of forest landowners and an improved quality of life for individuals and families in this region.

This effort used both research and outreach components to accomplish the goal through the following objectives. Research objectives were to:

a) estimate the number and additional socio-demographics of individual forest landowners in various underserved categories (i.e., race, gender, age, education, tenure of ownership, acreage owned, ownership objectives, others);

b) assess landowner attitudes, perceptions, and use of sustainable forestry practices (use of management/marketing assistance, regeneration of harvested areas, and knowledge of Best Management Practices; and

c) determine the most effective means of stimulating the involvement of owners in educational programs, resulting in changed behavior.

The outreach objectives were to:

a) utilize our research results to develop, conduct, and evaluate educational programs (workshops) in the south-central region to address the needs identified by underserved landowners;

b) develop an evaluation methodology to evaluate the short- and long-term effectiveness of these workshops for underserved forest landowners; and

c) utilize research and evaluation results to produce a “model” workshop for use in other regions.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture or SARE.

Primary Sidebar

Footer

SARE - Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education USDA
1122 Patapsco Building | University of Maryland | College Park, MD 20742-6715

This site is maintained by SARE Outreach for the SARE program and features research projects supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture. SARE Outreach operates under cooperative agreement award No. 2018-38640-28731 with the University of Maryland to develop and disseminate information about sustainable agriculture. USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.

Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education © 2019
Help | Contact us