Fostering the Production of Nontimber Services Among Forest Owners with Heterogeneous Objectives

Programs to enhance nontimber services increasingly focus on nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) owners. These owners are believed to possess multiple objectives, causing them to respond to economic forces and policies in complex and unpredictable ways. We examine NIPF owners in western Oregon and western Washington, using a survey to document their forest ownership objectives and willingness to accept incentive payments to forego harvesting to improve wildlife habitat. An empirical model is developed describing owners' willingness to accept incentive payments to delay harvest, as a function of their forest ownership objectives and socioeconomic characteristics. Mean incentive payments necessary to induce owners to forego harvest are higher for owners possessing primarily timber objectives ($301-314/ha/yr), than for owners possessing both timber and nontimber objectives ($254-257/ha/yr) or primarily recreation objectives ($185-210/ha/yr). An estimated supply curve describing the area of NIPF land on which owners would forego harvesting for 10 yr varies from relatively flat to fairly steep. Although many owners would require little or no incentive to forego harvest, others would require a significant incentive. Nontimber service: likely could be enhanced by targeting incentive programs or technical assistance toward NIPF ownersossessing nontimber objectives. FOR. ScI. 46(2):302-311.

[1]  Dale e. Lehman,et al.  A behavioral model of timber supply , 1988 .

[2]  T. F. Weaver,et al.  Heterogeneous Preferences and Aggregation in Environmental Policy Analysis: A Landfill Siting Case , 1994 .

[3]  T. W. Birch.  Private forest-land owners of the United States, 1994 / , 1996 .

[4]  Richard C. Bishop,et al.  Measuring Values of Extramarket Goods: Are Indirect Measures Biased? , 1979 .

[5]  J. Krutilla,et al.  Forest Management for Increased Timber and Water Yields , 1984 .

[6]  Jay M. Huches.  Forest Resource Economics , 1977 .

[7]  D. Dennis.  A probit analysis of the harvest decision using pooled time-series and cross-sectional data , 1990 .

[8]  Richard C. Bishop,et al.  Welfare Measurements Using Contingent Valuation: A Comparison of Techniques , 1988 .

[9]  David N. Wear,et al.  Production Economics of Private Forestry: A Comparison of Industrial and Nonindustrial Forest Owners , 1993 .

[10]  S. Swallow,et al.  Spatial Interactions in Multiple-Use Forestry and Substitution and Wealth Effects for the Single Stand , 1993 .

[11]  Michael Creel,et al.  Confidence intervals for evaluating benefits estimates from dichotomous choice contingent valuation studies. , 1991 .

[12]  J. Englin,et al.  Optimal taxation: Timber and externalities☆☆☆ , 1990 .

[13]  William J Strang,et al.  ON THE OPTIMAL FOREST HARVESTING DECISION , 1983 .

[14]  Benjamin B. Stout.  Forest Resource Economics , 1974 .

[15]  R. Alig,et al.  The supply of land for conservation uses: evidence from the conservation reserve program , 2001 .

[16]  Richard Hartman,et al.  The Harvesting Decision When a Standing Forest Has Value , 1976 .

[17]  T. Cameron.  Interval Estimates of Non-Market Resource Values from Referendum Contingent Valuation Surveys , 1991 .

[18]  D. McFadden.  Conditional logit analysis of qualitative choice behavior , 1972 .

[19]  D. Dennis.  An economic analysis of harvest behavior: integrating forest and ownership characteristics , 1989 .

[20]  J. Kline,et al.  Management of non-industrial private forest lands : survey results from western Oregon and Washington owners , 1999 .

[21]  S. Mulaik,et al.  Foundations of Factor Analysis , 1975 .

[22]  Jean-Paul Chavas,et al.  Validation of Empirical Measures of Welfare Change: A Comparison of Nonmarket Techniques , 1985 .

[23]  P. J. Parks,et al.  Individual choice and regional acreage response to cost-sharing in the South, 1971-1981 , 1991 .

[24]  David A. Patterson,et al.  Inference and Optimal Design for a Welfare Measure in Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation , 1991 .

[25]  P. Schmidt,et al.  Limited-Dependent and Qualitative Variables in Econometrics. , 1984 .

[26]  C. Maclean.  Changes in area and ownership of timberland in western Oregon: 1961-86. , 1990 .

[27]  H. Kaiser.  The varimax criterion for analytic rotation in factor analysis , 1958 .

[28]  Zhiliang Zhu,et al.  Forest resources of the United States, 1992. , 1993 .

[29]  THE FOREST RESOURCES OF THE UNITED STATES. , 1896, Science.

[30]  Mark D. Uncles,et al.  Discrete Choice Analysis: Theory and Application to Travel Demand , 1987 .

[31]  De Steiguer.  Impact of Cost-Share Programs on Private Reforestation Investment , 1984 .

[32]  W. Michael Hanemann,et al.  Welfare Evaluations in Contingent Valuation Experiments with Discrete Responses , 1984 .

[33]  R. Souter,et al.  A Note on Nonlinearity Bias and Dichotomous Choice CVM: Implications for Aggregate Benefits Estimation , 1996, Agricultural and Resource Economics Review.

[34]  J. Cooper.  A Comparison of Approaches to Calculating Confidence Intervals for Benefit Measures from Dichotomous Choice Contingent Valuation Surveys , 1994 .

[35]  David N. Wear,et al.  Policy-Relevant Nonconvexities in the Production of Multiple Forest Benefits? , 1990 .

[36]  Jean-Paul Chavas,et al.  Specification of the logit model: The case of valuation of nonmarket goods☆ , 1986 .

[37]  D. M. Holthausen,et al.  The behavior of nonindustrial private forest landowners , 1989 .

[38]  Rebecca Lynn Johnson,et al.  Using Image-capture Technology to Assess Scenic Value at the Urban/Forest Interface: a Case Study , 1994 .

[39]  Michael R. Anderberg,et al.  Cluster Analysis for Applications , 1973 .

[40]  T. W. Birch,et al.  The private forest-land owners of the United States , 1982 .

[41]  J. Royer.  Determinants of Reforestation Behavior Among Southern Landowners , 1987 .

[42]  J. Kuuluvainen,et al.  Landowner Objectives and Nonindustrial Private Timber Supply , 1996, Forest Science.