Out west, most wildlife watchers and outdoors enthusiasts probably don't think much about privately owned forests. Yet, fully two thirds of the nation's forests - roughly 500 million acres encompassing 20 percent of the United States - are nonfederal forestlands. And many face an uncertain future.

County and state governments, nongovernment organizations, and integrated forest products companies own a portion of the nation's forestlands; however, privately owned family forests account for nearly half of U.S. forestlands, and thus play a critical role in protecting important resources such as water quality, wildlife habitat, rare plant and animal species, and fishing, hunting and outdoor recreation opportunities.

According to the Pinchot Institute for Conservation, a nonprofit specializing in sustainable forestry initiatives, today the nation stands poised to undergo the largest intergenerational transfer of family forest ownership in U.S. history. The outcome of such transfers could greatly impact vast forest expanses and associated resources, affecting the public values these forestlands traditionally provide. Despite a diverse, aging population of 10.3 million individuals, the Pinchot Institute says, the perspectives of today's private forest landowners are "reasonably well understood." The institute said the typical reasons families own forestlands include aesthetic enjoyment, conserving environmental values, privacy and owning a valuable asset to pass on to heirs. Within two decades, however, a substantial portion of these private forestlands will be transferred to the next generation, the institute estimates, with fully 10 percent of these lands changing hands in the next five years. Will heirs choose to manage for the same values as their predecessors?

Family forests: legacy or windfall
The Pinchot Institute, in cooperation with U.S. Forest Service and state forestry agencies, conducted the Next Generation of Forest Landowners Study. Three hundred heirs in 25 states, destined to own a total of about 300,000 acres ranging in tract size from 10 to over 500 acres, were interviewed by phone to complete the survey.

While the sample size was not large enough for statistical evaluation, the survey produced interesting results, with consistent responses across gender, age and location. Overall, the survey found women tended to focus on the importance of maintaining the land as a family legacy, while men focused more on income and personal use.

While most offspring wished to inherit the land, less than half wanted to be involved in the land's current management. And while heirs stated that their family forests were currently managed primarily for wildlife protection, not income generation, 60 percent said they would develop income from the land, primarily from timber harvesting, with males much more interested in this than females, the Institute reported.

Both males and females ranked taxes as a primary challenge to owning the family forest, a key condition that would force them to sell or subdivide. The need to pay for medical expenses also ranked as a condition that could force heirs to sell family forests. The Pinchot Institute's Catherine Mater conducted research for the study, noting, "This is probably the first time in forest landowner research in the United States where family health and forest health have been linked together."

The institute states the survey portrays a population of future private forest landowners that is increasingly remote from the forest land itself, whose livelihoods are less connected with the land, and who lack prior involvement with the management of the family forest, rendering the new owners unlikely to have the knowledge or experience to feel competent in making management decisions.

The institute expresses concern that heirs will be less interested in owning the land at all, and more likely to consider options that will result in further fragmentation or conversion of forest land.

Teton family forests
While Teton County, Wyo., contains only 3 percent private land totaling 70,465 taxable acres, thousands of those acres exist as family forestlands. As residential and commercial development continues, private family forests become increasingly important wildlife habitat. According to Rich Greenwood of Greenwood Mapping, Inc., which maintains Teton County, Wyo.'s Geographic Information System (GIS), 18,080 acres of conservation easements overlay private lands in Jackson Hole, a portion of which include private family forest lands. Other measures also exist to help local owners better manage and protect family forests.

The Pinchot Institute's survey analysis notes that intergenerational "succession plans" often limit focus to estate planning aimed at minimizing tax consequences of intergenerational asset transfers. The institute suggests a more comprehensive approach might include considerations of continuity in forest management plans and objectives, particularly where goals include creating conditions or values that require decades to develop.

The U.S. Forest Service offers a wide variety of landowner assistance programs to help private landowners "protect, improve, restore and sustain private forests." USFS notes that its cooperative forestry program has helped landowners manage about 30 million acres of nonindustrial land and protect over 1,030,000 acres of environmentally important private forestland. USFS's Forest Stewardship and Forestland Enhancement Programs help private landowners manage forests to enhance and maintain productivity, health, biodiversity, soil and water resources, recreation and aesthetics. One helps landowners develop sustainable management plans, while the other provides educational, technical, and financial assistance to help landowners implement management objectives.

USFS's Forest Legacy Program protects private forestlands from being converted to non-forest uses, helping landowners establish conservation easements on their land.

In an effort to help rural communities, local businesses and tribes strengthen economies without compromising forest health or quality of life, the agency's Economic Action Programs help rural communities build skills, networks, and strategies to address social, environmental, and economic changes, and helping businesses develop and market new products for forest-based goods and services, such as biomass energy.

Through cooperative forestry outreach, USFS provides federal funding to states, local governments, and non-profit organizations to leverage additional resources and fuel innovative ideas.

While the nation's private forests may be managed for conservation values today, they could become subdivisions tomorrow. Public oversight and stringent environmental protections afforded to public forests are just one reason why decision makers may wish to think twice before advancing legislation that would privatize public lands.