The Sustaining Family Forests Initiative is a collaboration organized to gain comprehensive knowledge about family forest owners in the United States. Members of the initiative include government agencies, forest industry companies, conservation organizations, certification systems, landowner groups, and universities. At a minimum, all of these groups agree on the importance of keeping forests as forests and good forest stewardship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About Us

There are about 4 million individuals, families and trusts who own 32% of all family forestland in the continental US, defined here as forest between 10 and 999 acres, for a total of 198 million acres. America's family forest owners are a diverse mix of people who have many and varied reasons for owning land. They include rugged timber men, country folk, urbanites, farmers, environmentalists, avid hunters, overworked professionals, and a host of others. To help make sense of these differences, the Sustaining Family Forests Initiative has developed a practical set of tools to help conservation and forestry professionals reach these landowners with effective stewardship messages and develop programs that serve the needs and values of the landowners.

The basis of our work is to apply a social marketing approach—the use of commercial marketing techniques to affect positive social change—as a promising means by which to influence family forest owners to take steps to conserve and sustainably manage their land. We take advantage of the wealth of data collected via the USDA Forest Service's National Woodland Owner's Survey to determine specific landowner concerns and their reasons for managing forestland.

The project is directed by an ad hoc group of diverse, interested stakeholders, listed below:

Management Team

Brett Butler
USDA Forest Service
Family Forest Research Center

Dave Gerhardt
MeadWestvaco Company

Tom Martin
American Forest Foundation

Eric Norland
Forest Resource Management
USDA - National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Mary Tyrrell
Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

Project Funders

Sponsors

American Forest Foundation
Edmund F. and Virginia B. Ball Foundation
Edward C. Armbrecht Jr. Family Fund
MeadWestvaco Foundation
Surdna Foundation
USDA Forest Service, Family Forest Research Center
USDA Forest Service, Cooperative Forestry
Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry

Contributors

American Forest & Paper Association
Fletcher Foundation
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Indiana Department of Natural Resources
International Paper
Iowa Department of Natural Resources
The Johnson Foundation
Lowes, Inc.
Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation
Missouri Department of Conservation
The Nature Conservancy
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
Potlatch Corporation
University of Wisconsin Extension
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
West Virginia Division of Forestry
Weyerhaeuser Company Foundation
Yale Program on Strategies for the Future of Conservation

Advisory Committee

Tim Adams – South Carolina Forestry Commission
Keith A. Argow – National Woodland Owners Assoc
Ted Beauvais – USDA Forest Service
Karen Bennett – University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension
Connie Best – The Pacific Forest Trust
John C. Bliss – Oregon State University
Nadine Block – Sustainable Forestry Initiative, Inc.
Mark Buccowich – USDA Forest Service
Peter Bundy – Masconomo Forestry
John W. Burke, III – McGuire Woods LLP
Brett J. Butler – USDA Forest Service
Paul Catanzaro – University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Michael Chenard – Lowe's Companies, Inc.
Tom DeGomez – University of Arizona
Paul DeLong – Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Tom Doak – Small Woodland Owner Assoc. of Maine
John DuPlissis – University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point
Bob Emory – Weyerhaeuser Company
Jay Farrell – National Association of State Foresters
Geoff Feinberg – GfK America
Kathryn Fernholz – Dovetail Partners Inc.
Jennifer Fish – Department of Conservation and Recreation
Warren C. Gaskill – Rapid Improvement Associates, LLC
David W. Gerhardt – MeadWestvaco Corporation
R. Alec Giffen – Maine Forest Service
Michael Goergen – Society of American Foresters
Jerry Greenberg – American Forest Foundation
Tony Grossman – Florida Division of Forestry
William G. Hubbard – The University of Georgia
George Kessler – Clemson University Ext. Forest Resources
David B. Kittredge – University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Joseph C. Lawson – MeadWestvaco Corporation
Pat Layton – Clemson University
Sara Leiman – Oregon Small Woodlands Association
Lynn Lyford – New England Forestry Foundation
Kathryn Maloney – USDA Forest Service
Tom Martin – American Forest Foundation
Andy Mason – USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service
Greg Meade – The Nature Conservancy
Mary Motlow – Cumberland Springs Land Company
Eric Norland – USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
James T. Paul – Oregon Department of Forestry
Andy Perleberg – WSU Extension Forester
Liz Sandler – American Forest Foundation
V. Alaric Sample – Pinchot Institute for Conservation
Andy Shultz – Maine Forest Service
Karen Steer – Forest Stewardship Council
Mary Tyrrell – Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
R. Scott Wallinger – MeadWestvaco SVP (Retired)
Andy Ware – Ohio Department of Natural Resources
Doug Williams – National Assoc of Conservation Districts
Laurence D. Wiseman – CenterLine Strategy
Amelia Wright – Tree Farmer, Maryland and Delaware
Dale Zaug – Wisconsin Woodland Owners Association

We aim to provide credible, useful information that will serve as a wide-ranging resource to aid in the development of outreach and services, so that organizations working with family forest owners can be more strategic in meeting education, outreach, and service goals, that will lead to enhanced stewardship of private lands and help keep forests as forests.