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Oregon State University researchers conducted a survey in 1994 of non-industrial private forest (NIPF) landowners in western Oregon and western Washington. Private forests provide valuable ecological services, such as fish and wildlife habitat, and are also partially filling the gap created by recent reductions in federal timber harvest in the region. The purpose of the study was to assess demographic characteristics, timber management practices, harvest decisions, attitudes toward government regulation, and the use of government assistance by NIPF landowners in western Oregon and western Washington. NIPF owners are a very heterogenous class with diverse objectives, ranging from timber production to the enjoyment of owning "green space". Most of the owners surveyed had harvested timber from their land and had used a variety of methods, including clearcuts (28%) and thinnings and other partial cuts (60%). A majority (68%) said they would alter the amount and timing of their harvest if it were necessary to maintain a healthy ecosystem. However, most owners would not be willing to give up their right to harvest timber altogether, even if offered a tax incentive. Many of the results differed between owners of large acreages and owners of small acreages.
Two hundred and fifty-four nonindustrial private forest landowners in western Oregon were surveyed to develop baseline information about harvesting practices and to examine the influence of marketing procedures on delivered log prices. Most respondents harvested to meet income or silvicultural objectives. Harvests on ownerships less than 50 acres in size accounted for over one third of the harvest volume. The majority of harvests were partial cuts; salvage harvests comprised about 20 percent of the sales. Most respondents managed their own sales or relied on the logger or timber buyer. Consultants managed only six percent of the sales. Respondents who left the sale details to the logger were significantly less satisfied with the sale results and earned lower prices than other landowners. A regression analysis was performed to evaluate the relationships between sale procedures and the delivered log price. The model indicated that sale to export buyers and the number of buyers contacted were positively associated with sale price; payment of the logger on a percentage basis, lack of familiarity with price levels and trends, and buyer-initiated sales were negatively associated with the sales price. Analysis of the relationships between ownership characteristics and sale procedures indicated that experienced landowners with larger holdings were better timber marketers by normative standards.
In this analysis, volume-flow and market-based models of the western Oregon timber sector are developed. The volume-flow model finds the maximum, long-term, even-flow level of cut for each ownership (industry and non-industrial private forest). The market model simulates the interaction of log demand and timber owner supply to find the market balancing harvest quantity and log price. In both models, owner decisions on the intensity of timber management (silviculture) are made within the models consistent with owner objectives (volume or wealth maximization). Model projections suggest that western Oregon forest industry owners could sustain cut at recent (1995-1999) levels, stemming the 40-yr declining trend in their harvest. Nonindustrial private forest owners could raise harvests to near historical peak levels. These harvests could be maintained over the next five decades with no reduction in the growing stock inventory. Management would continue to shift toward the more intensive forms on both ownerships. The average age of the inventory would decline over the projection. Simulated riparian protection policies lower harvest roughly in proportion to the land base reduction and raise log prices. A policy to increase the minimum age of clearcut harvests would lead to large near-term reductions in industrial harvest but less marked reductions on NIPF lands. Prices would rise sharply in the near term. Over the longer term, the policy would act to expand inventory, raising harvest, and to depress prices.