Changes in Forestland Ownership

Timberland Ownership and Investments

Capital Markets and Sustainable Forestry: Opportunities for Investment
Best, Constance with Michael Jenkins. June 1999. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Industrial Timberland Divestitures and Investments: Opportunities and Challenges in Forestland Conservation.
Block, Nadine E. and V. Alaric Sample. September, 2001
Pinchot Institute for Conservation The Pinchot Institute for Conservation, in collaboration with the USDA Forest Service, convened a symposium on May 22, 2000, to examine the significant increase in industrial timberland sales over the last several years, the changing ownership, and the resulting implications for forest conservation. This report synthesizes the presentations and discussion at the symposium, and offers some recommendations for future actions.

  • Increased funding for existing programs, both public and private, that effectively address the land conservation opportunities.

  • A strategy for conservation organizations and agencies to determine priorities for conservation, before divested timberlands come on the market, in order to bid for these lands in a timely fashion.

  • Partnerships between TIMOs and conservation organizations and government agencies to protect parcels of land with significant ecological value

Changing From Industrial to Non-Industrial Ownership in the Northern Forest
Part I discusses New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association research and the resulting answers to their research question. Through the use of participatory research methodology, members of the forestry community from northern New Hampshire and Vermont surveyed over 17 individuals and companies whose livelihoods and businesses have been affected by changes in land owner-ship of two large North Country tracts that have taken place within the last 15 years.
Part II follows the participatory research process as experienced by the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association. Environmental organizations, grassroots coalitions, and representatives from all factions of natural resource management have been involved as industry lands transfer to state, federal or private ownership. With changes in ownership come changes in land management goals and objectives. This is a very early stage in trying to understand the consequences of these changes for the region

Conservation Capital: Sources of Public Funding for Land Conservation
By Ann Ingerson
This citizen’s guide is part of a series of publications that present findings from conservation research studies conducted by The Wilderness Society’s Ecology and Economics Research Department. This report is a great tool for those who want to find a way to help conserve land using government dollars. Our report describes the primary federal programs that fund land and resource conservation in the United States, summarizing both little known federal funding sources and available state and local programs. Although the guide focuses on the eastern states, which include far fewer large conservation units than in the West, the specific examples presented here are applicable all across the country.