Corporate forest ownerships of the United States, 2018: results from the USDA Forest Service, National Woodland Owner Survey

Abstract

The National Woodland Owner Survey (NWOS) is conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis program, to collect information on the attitudes, behaviors, and other characteristics of America's private forest ownerships. This report provides documentation and results from the 2017 to 2018 iteration of the NWOS, which is referenced by the terminal year, 2018. The term "corporate ownerships" collectively refers to large corporate ownerships, which are companies owning 45,000+ acres of forest land, and small corporate ownerships, which include companies with between 10 and 44,999 acres of forest land and conservation organizations, partnerships, associations, and clubs. Selected results are presented and full sets of summary tables, by geography (Nation and regions) and five domains of interest, are provided in the accompanying supplemental materials. The domains of interest used in the supplemental summary tables are small corporate forest ownerships with holding sizes of 1+, 10+, 100+, and 1,000+ acres of forest land, and large corporate ownerships with holding sizes of 45,000+ acres. Each set of summary tables contains survey cooperation rates, and summaries of the responses to questions asked on the survey. The report concludes with a discussion of data interpretation, data limitations, and how to compare results with previous iterations of the NWOS.

Corporate forest ownerships with 1+ acres of forest land control 21 percent of the forest land in the United States, excluding interior Alaska. An estimated 98 percent of the small corporate forest land is in holdings of 10 or more acres of forest land, but an estimated 54 percent of the small corporate forest ownerships have holdings between 1 and 9 acres of forest land. In contrast, large corporate forest ownerships have average holdings of 312,000 acres. The results highlighted in this report are for small corporate forest ownerships with 10+ acres of forest land and large corporate forest ownerships with 45,000+ acres of forest land at the national level. This group includes an estimated 307,000 ownerships, which collectively own 145 million acres of forest land. Among small corporate ownerships, the most common reasons for owning forests are "To protect or improve wildlife habitat," "To protect water resources," and "To protect nature or biological diversity." Timber production is the single most important objective among large corporate ownerships, but protection of nature, water, and wildlife habitat are important objectives among at least 50 percent of these ownerships as well. Forest management practices are occurring on many small corporate forests, but written management plans, receiving professional advice in the previous 5 years, and participating in assistance programs are relatively uncommon. In contrast, a substantial majority of large corporate acreage is covered by management plans or enrolled in one or more green certification programs (or a combination thereof). Small corporate forest owners’ most common concerns include "Trespassing or poaching," "Government regulation," and "High property taxes." Large corporate ownerships share concerns related to regulation and taxes, as well as concerns related to changes in forest product markets.

Appendix 1: National and regional summary tables (Download zip file 423 KB)

Appendix 2: NWOS survey instruments (Download zip file 4.4 MB)

Appendix 3: Survey mailing materials (Download zip file 1.1 MB)

Appendix 4: Nonresponse assessment results (Download  zip file 85.5 MB)

Citation

Caputo, Jesse; Butler, Brett J.; Butler, Sarah M.; Robillard, Amanda; Sass, Emma M.; Markowski-Lindsay, Marla; Hartsell, Andrew J. 2023. Corporate forest ownerships of the United States, 2018: results from the USDA Forest Service, National Woodland Owner Survey. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-216. Madison, WI: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 62 p. [plus 4 appendixes]. https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-GTR-216.