Co-Principal
Investigators: Summary: Time
Table: Notes: The term
"limited-resource,
traditionally under-served landholders"
includes those who have smaller-than-average holdings with no, or limited,
access to substantial amounts of capital or off-farm income; beginning
farmers; farmers producing for emerging or alternative markets; and
individuals and groups, such as minority farmers, traditionally under-served
by credit and other farm service institutions (SARE 2000a).
Sustaining ecological and economic diversity among limited resource
landholders by expanding opportunities for management of productive
woodlands
Erin O. Sills and Sarah T. Warren, North Carolina State University
The
quality of rural life is improved when a mosaic of land use patterns
and human settlements occupies the landscape. Such diversity in rural
landscapes is advanced by integrating productive woodlots and forests
into farming systems. However, certain sectors of the farming population,
particularly limited-resource landholders, have remained under-served
by existing forest product- and service-based institutions. The long-term
goal of this research and education project is to strengthen the capacities
of limited-resource, traditionally under-served
farm and forest landholders throughout the Southeast so that they can
sustainably and profitably manage their natural resource base. This
will also provide the information base for addressing financial and
structural impediments to their participation in the forest products
and services sector.
This research and education project contains four objectives that will
help achieve ecological and economic diversity in southeastern farming
systems. Objective 1 is to develop and apply methods for identifying
and contacting client landholders. Objective 2 is to describe and analyze
the preferences, opportunities, and constraints that inform decision-making
about woodland management within farming systems.
Objective 3 is to analyze and select technically proven options for
woodland management that are sustainable and appropriate to farm family
goals and economic systems. Objective 4 is to extend these options to
the client population. Research results obtained through satisfying
the first objectives will inform the education and outreach portions
of the last one.
Research will be focused in two clusters of counties in the coastal
plain of North Carolina and a contiguous county in Virginia. These
counties contain high numbers of limited-resource farmers, large
proportions of woodlands on farms, and considerable non-industrial
private forest holdings. Using a combination of survey, interview,
and consultation methods, both quantitative and qualitative data
will be collected and analyzed on extant and proposed farming
system preferences and management, opportunities for entry into
existing and emerging forest product and service markets, and
constraints on participation in a variety of public and private
cost-share and incentive programs. Progress and results will be
shared through continuing education workshops, field days and
on-farm demonstrations, production of educational materials in
several media, publication of extension and academically oriented
papers, and interim and final reports.
The project is multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary, with
research and education collaboration between North Carolina State
University, North Carolina A&T University, the Concerned Citizens
of Tillery, the Land Loss Prevention Project, and numerous public
agencies, forest industry, and private voluntary organizations.
Project duration is three years (2001 - 2004).
Objectives:
The four major objectives of this project support sustainable
management of woodlands by client landholders. The project clients
are limited-resource, traditionally under-served landholders ,
including black, Native American, and female, both resident and
absentee, in selected counties of eastern North Carolina and eastern
Virginia.
Objective 1 is to develop and apply methods for identifying and contacting
landholders.
Objective 2 is to describe and analyze the preferences, opportunities, and
constraints that inform decision-making about woodland management
within farming systems.
Objective 3 is to analyze and select technically proven options for woodland
management that are sustainable and appropriate to farm family
goals and economic systems.
Objective 4 is to extend these options to the client population through education
and outreach.
The primary activities under Objective 1 will be to generate a sampling frame, administer a survey on
decision making by client landholders, and evaluate the chosen
and alternative methods for identifying client landholders. The
results will inform Objectives 2 and 3.
For Objective 2, the multidisciplinary project team will focus on client landholder
decisions to manage for and market forest products and services,
evaluating the impact of access to information and training about
silvicultural and management techniques, input markets for credit
and forest management services, and output markets particularly
for emerging non-timber products and services. Other factors likely
to be important include environmental regulations and incentive
plans, availability of material and labor in the farming system,
financial flows over seasons and years, and tenurial status such
as use rights, heir-property, mortgage liabilities, absentee ownership,
and tax schedules.
For Objective 3, the research and outreach team will consider practices for pre-
and post-harvest management, reforestation and wood certification
programs, cooperative structures, as well as interim and alternative
woodland income strategies such as game/hunting leases, pine straw
collection, subsidized conservation easements, wild plant supply
to nurseries, and small business opportunities. Methods of integrating
woodland management with crop and livestock systems will also
be considered. Priority will be given to options that: complement
crop and livestock components of farming systems; are profitable
on small landholdings or can be implemented cooperatively; supply
growing non-timber product markets; are eligible for existing
and proposed incentive programs; and enhance ecological and economic
sustainability of diverse farm systems.
For Objective 4, the research team will provide outreach guidance to agencies,
private voluntary organizations, and corporations that oversee
sustainable and diverse farming system initiatives, through continuing
education programming and other information dissemination. Case
study families will host on-farm demonstrations of management
options selected based on research findings about landholders,
markets, and incentive programs. Other outreach activities will
include workshops or field days that highlight the on-farm demonstrations
and a pilot information campaign about available support and incentive
programs for woodland management and markets.
Study Area:
The project focus is on two clusters of counties in the southern
and northern coastal plain of North Carolina, and on one county
in eastern Virginia (Brunswick County, VA, Warren, Halifax, Northampton,
Sampson, Duplin, and Robeson Counties, NC). These counties have
many minority landholders, relatively large amounts of woodland
on farms, and relatively large acreages of forest land in nonindustrial
private ownership (USDA-NASS 1997, USDA Forest Service 1990).
They are representative of rural communities in the southern Atlantic
coastal plain.
Period
1
Assemble
sampling frame
Meet with key informants/case study families concerning client landholder
identification and design of survey instrument
First round of interviews with key informants/case study families
Assemble secondary data sources and initiate literature review
Design survey instrument, obtain expert review, discuss in focus group
Period
2
Project
meeting (January - Major participants)
Pre-test survey
Administer survey
Evaluate response rates, and make necessary follow-up contacts
Evaluate chosen and alternative methods for identifying client landholders
Second round of interviews
Design and construct project web site
Annual Report (June)
Period
3
Consultations
and interviews on woodland management alternatives
Canvass of coastal plain market opportunities and identification of
business collaborators
Complete trend analyses
Third round of interviews
Begin survey data analysis
Period
4
Mid-term
project workshop (January - major participants, policy makers, business,
extension, other SARE project participants to participate)
Economic assessment of woodland management alternatives (financial/
programming)
Selection of woodland management alternatives for demonstration and
outreach
Fourth round of interviews
Begin design of information materials (web page, written materials)
Annual report (June)
Period
5
Initiate
pilot information campaign
Fifth round of interviews
Field-days/on-farm demonstrations
Complete survey data analysis; integrate qualitative and qualitative
data
Period
6
Project
Meeting (January)
Distribute working papers for comment
Sixth round of interviews
Continuing education program
Field-days/on-farm demonstrations
Wrap-up and evaluation activities
Final Report
The term
"woodland"
will be used throughout the text to describe both the Census of Agriculture
category of "woodlands on farms", and forest lands that are
not counted as "farm land" because insufficient farm income
is generated from landholdings.
The
long-term goal of this research and education project is to strengthen
the capacities of limited-resource, traditionally
under-served farm and forest landholders throughout the Southeast
so that they can sustainably and profitably manage their natural resource
base.