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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resources

Background Documents

Available for download here are background documents about the Sustaining Family Forests Initiative, including the original project proposal and meeting reports. In addition, a literature review on Family Forest Owners is available as well as a document about motivating conservation and stewardship behaviors. You may also download our new TELE brochure, and register to receive news and alerts about workshops in your area.

Background Documents for download:

Research Reports

The Sustaining Family Forests Initiative has issued two research reports, which convey early results of an ongoing effort to better understand the demography, attitudes, behaviors, and intentions of American family forest owners.

The first, Family Forest Owners: An In-depth Profile, used data from the USDA Forest Service's National Woodland Owner Survey to better understand family forest owners and, in turn, how a successful social marketing campaign might be implemented.

Family Forest Owners: Insights into Land-Related Stewardship, Values, and Intentions is based on findings from landowner focus groups conducted in five regions of the US.

Research reports for download:

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.