Seeing the forest for more than the trees: Relationships and identity and their forest management impact
Open Access
- Author:
- Jamison, Abigail
- Graduate Program:
- Forest Resources
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- June 03, 2021
- Committee Members:
- Bradley Cardinale, Program Head/Chair
Allyson Muth, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Laura P Leites, Committee Member
Douglas Alan Miller, Committee Member
Theodore Roberts Alter, Committee Member
Rachel Reyna, Special Signatory - Keywords:
- forestry
private forest landowners
relationships
collaborative learning
trust
framing theory
identity
phenomenology
professional practice - Abstract:
- The management of Northeastern forests is contextualized by the values and objectives of the private individuals who predominantly own them. Recent research has uncovered conflicting narratives of that ownership – private forest landowners express intrinsic value and connection to their land that is unrelated to a desire to cut trees for sale. Yet, in Pennsylvania, many of these same individuals have conducted a commercial timber harvest without the guidance of an expert professional and, by their description of harvest activities, using unsustainable methods. Essentially, the practices occurring on the land are misaligned with the values landowners hold, and foresters are not being consulted to negate that misalignment. Research and professional experience indicate that this forester-landowner disconnect is likely related to the forester’s ability to communicate and connect in an interaction, as well as a landowner’s perception of the forester’s willingness to empathize with and understand their values. To engage someone who easily relates to their values, landowners often turn to known others – friends, family, neighbors – and other informed landowners to learn about forest management in comfortable interactions. While prior research details who landowners turn to for guidance and describes the disconnect between foresters and landowners, largely missing is an understanding of the substance of a landowner-advisor interaction and the impact of that on creating connection, learning, and taking action on the land. This thesis serves to fill that gap. The purpose of the research presented herein is to: (1) understand the nature of landowner-peer and landowner-consulting forester interactions, as well as the differences between the two, (2) uncover the characteristics of interactions that lead to collaborative, working relationships, and (3) uncover the characteristics of interactions that lead to a landowner’s learning and behavior change toward care of the land. Chapter 1 introduces the story of Pennsylvania private forest ownership and provides methodological background for the following research. Chapter 2 details this research in full, uncovering and articulating the discovery of relationships and learning within interactions and the important role they plan in private forest management. Chapter 3 focuses on the creation of relationships between foresters and landowners and finds that identity, characterization, and the ability to find common connections as highly impactful in relationship formation. Chapter 4 outlines unique elements of experience that presented themselves in research, as well as practical recommendations, research needs, and limitations of this work. Results inform the importance of integrating social competencies and tools in forest management and provide fodder for contemplating the efficacy of the traditional expert-client model of private forestry practice.