WVFA Mountain State Forestry Spring 2021

T R E E F A R M N E W S 20 West Virginia Forestry Association Mountain State Forestry | Spring 2021 www.wvfa.org Survey Highlights Importance of West Virginia Family Woodland Owners By Emma Sass and Brett Butler FORESTS PROVIDE BENEFITS AT LOCAL, REGIONAL, AND GLOBAL SCALES. Families and individuals own more wooded land than any other group in the U.S. , and their decisions about how to manage and care for their land have broad impacts. Understanding these woodland owners in West Virginia, including what they do with their land and why, and what their challenges and needs are, is important to help support healthy forests and vibrant communities now and into the future. Here, we use “woodland” as a broad term to include woods, woodlots, timberlands, and forests—any patch of trees that’s more than one acre in size. Families and individuals who own wooded land—collectively, “family woodland owners,” can be one person, a joint ownership of spouses or other individuals, family partnerships, family LLCs or LLPs, and family trusts or estates. We use “ownerships” to refer to all the owners of a piece of woodland. To better understand family woodland owners, the USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program conducts the National Woodland Owner Survey (NWOS). The survey asks landowners about who they are, why they own their wooded land, what they have done with it in the past, and what do they intend to do with it in the future. Below we present results from 189 randomly selected West Virginia woodland ownerships with 1+ acres who responded to the survey in 2017 and 2018. Family Woodland Owners Count! An estimated 6.1 million acres of wooded land in West Virginia are owned by an estimated 280,000 family ownerships. Family ownerships control 51% of West Virginia’s wooded land, more than any other ownership group, including the state or federal government or forest industry. Size of Holdings Makes a Big Difference The average wooded land ownership with 1+ acres in West Virginia has 22 acres of wooded land. 66% of the ownerships have relatively small holdings between 1–9 acres, but 52% of the area of wooded land is owned by ownerships with 100 acres or more. This is important because size of holdings limits what an ownership can do with their land, such as timber harvesting, wildfire protection, or control of invasive species, and often impacts what programs they are eligible for. Because of the increased management options, program involvement, and other dynamics of larger ownerships, all following results are for family woodland owners with 10 or more acres. Beauty, Wildlife, and Nature are What Matter The most commonly cited reasons for owning woodland in West Virginia are related to the beauty, wildlife, and privacy. Passing land onto future generations, raising a family, and recreation are also important to many owners. Financial objectives, such as land investment and timber production, are important to some owners, but they are not as common as other objectives. They Love Their Land Most family forest owners in West Virginia have a deep love of their land. The vast majority of owners, 88%, agree or strongly agree with the statement “I want my wooded land to stay wooded.” 73% of owners agree or strongly that they have a strong emotional tie to their wooded land, and 75% say they know their wooded land well. Management In the past five years, around one in five (18%) family woodland owners have cut or removed trees for sale, and one third (37%) have cut trees for their own use. Around one in four (28%) have 51% West Virginia wooded land owned by families 66% Woodland owners with 1–9 acres of land 18% Family woodland owners who have cut or removed trees for sale in the past five years 74% Family owners worried about keeping the land intact for future generations