At the Center: Sharing Our Work

At the start of each new year, through the compilation of the Center for Private Forests’ annual report, we think about how best to present the work and outcomes of the previous year—how to highlight the events, the accomplishments, the challenges, and new directions, and demonstrate how those efforts align with our vision—a world where stewardship practices sustain healthy and resilient private forests which contribute to the social, ecological, and economic well-being of society. 

As we think about how best to share our work, one thing becomes clear: we accomplish our best work in service to others—the private forest landowners, the professionals who work to support them, and the public who benefit from the goods and services derived from that forest. At the core of the Center’s work is applied research: research for and with those who are looking for answers to pressing questions, challenges faced, and opportunities sought. 

This foundation of applied research has been evident through the work of our graduate students. Most recently, former master’s student Abby Jamison’s work on the relationship between landowners and those who advise them has led to a couple of academic papers. Her research has framed a challenge to those of us in the forestry community that we hope to get out more widely in response to widespread skepticism of our motives uncovered in this work—how do we carry and present our expertise as we engage the landowners who we’re trying to help? 

Building off Abby’s research, and utilizing the results of the 2021 private forest landowner survey (results coming soon!), PhD student Sasha Soto’s work will look at who landowners trust to gain information about caring for their land. Her work will inform how agencies and organizations that engage and educate landowners can overcome the aforementioned barriers of skepticism to move more people into active engagement with their land. 

Recent research with Pennsylvania’s land trust community has turned into multiple training opportunities and larger conversations across the state to help their staffs consider enhancing forest conservation values on properties with conservation easements held by their organizations, as well opportunities to re-state old conservation easements that have been overly restrictive to allow for management in response to our changing forest conditions. There is positive response to the work and the conversations stemming from it, with more partners coming together to address the hurdles to these organizations’ abilities to become more proactive in supporting the tending of the lands which they protect. While research is the foundation on which the Center’s work is built, it is imperative that our research serve others—informing practice, affecting policy, enhancing programs and resources, and supporting those who own the majority of forestland. We want our work to make a difference.