Exploring Decision-Making by Forest Landowners in Indiana

INNOVATIONS

The project involved examining whether or not forest landowners have adopted two innovations. These innovations were considered to represent practices and tools that could be potentially relevant to land management decisionmaking by forest landowners. These innovations were:

(1) Enrollment in conservation programs e.g., federal and state programs, such as the Indiana Classified Forest Program, CRP, WRP, etc.; and

(2) Use of information technologies (IT), i.e., the Internet and personal computers, as tools for accessing information across social networks, including information that is potentially relevant to forest management.

A random sample of forest landowners, selected from the mailing list of the Indiana Woodland Steward, received a mail questionnaire. Forest landowners could respond by mail or through a web based instrument using an access code provided on the mail questionnaire. The web survey instrument was also advertised on the Woodland Steward’s home page. Responses were received through the Fall of 1999. There were 320 usable responses, with half obtained through the web survey instrument. Forest landowners were also compared to a separate sample of agricultural landowners in Indiana. This sample was obtained through the Office of the Indiana Agricultural Statistics Service at Purdue University. Social networks  were explored as they represent the channels through which the Diffusion of Innovations process takes place across a social system of interest.

Based on the theory of Diffusion of Innovations, landowners were classified into one of two categories:

(1) Adopters — participants in conservation programs and users of   IT, vs.

(2) Non-adopters — non-participants in conservation programs or nonusers of information technologies.

FINDINGS  SOCIAL NETWORKS

Landowners who had adopted (enrolled in) conservation programs had more formal social network contacts. In other words, they were more highly networked with professional contacts outside the local community. "Local community" was defined for this study as those informal social contacts, such as other landowners, neighbors, and friends. Non-local or formal contacts included Extension personnel, the Indiana Depart ment of Natural Resources, other natural resource management agencies and private consultants. Findings are consistent with Diffusion of Innovations theory that argues for more formal social contacts used by earlier adopters of innovations.

Contrary to predictions based on Diffusion of Innovations theory, local networks of influence did not differ among adopters and non-adopters of conservation programs. Both groups appear to place similar levels of importance on informal networks for information exchange, such as about land use issues.

FOREST LANDOWNERS AND IT

More than half (67%) of all forest landowner respondents indicated that they use information technologies, such as the Internet and computers. However, there may be a methodological bias here  the questionnaire was provided on the web, suggesting that those with web access would be more likely to respond.

Among those who responded strictly through the mail questionnaire, 45% indicated using computers and/or the Internet.

The findings that not all forest landowner respondents are using IT is not surprising, because there are many people among the U.S. population that have not yet adopted IT tools, such as the Internet.  At the same time, the number of people adopting IT is increasing. We are witnessing the diffusion of IT as an innovation in progress, and these tools continue to gain new adopters. Future growth in Internet use has implications for ongoing strategies for communicating natural resource management messages.

Use of information technologies (IT) differed between forest and agricultural landowners. Purely agricultural landowners were the least likely to use IT. Landowners who had a mix of forest and agricultural resources were more likely to use IT than those in agriculture alone. Strictly forest landowners were the most highly involved with the Internet and related technologies when compared to the other groups.

Forest landowner respondents who use IT have generally had fewer years of forest ownership in Indiana than those who do not use IT. Internet users are more likely to be from white-collar occupations with higher levels of education, and less likely to be in retirement years.

On the other hand, IT users and nonusers did not differ significantly in acres of forest operated, nor did they differ by the frequency of people who have had a timber harvest in the past. If land base and timber harvest are used as indicators of socioeconomic status, then internet users are not of higher status than nonusers. In addition, when those in retirement ages were removed from the sample, there was no difference in age category distribution across IT users and nonusers.

IT users and nonusers do not differ substantially in their formal social network contacts, such as contacts with extension personnel, FSA, NRCS, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Those forest landowners on the Internet are more likely to contact IDNR for information and to relay on private consultants for help with land management. IT users are also more likely to indicate conservation magazines and mass media channels (TV, radio, newspaper) as sources of information about land use issues.

ADOPTION OF THE INTERNET

The most surprising finding of this study was that use of IT did not help to predict whether a landowner was a participant in conservation programs. In other words, those landowners enrolled in conservation programs were not necessarily more technologically savvy in dealing with innovative communication tools, than landowners who did not participate in conservation programs.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE WSI

Forest landowners using Internet technology were equally divided between Classified (Forest and Wildlife Habitat) program participants and non-participants. Therefore, those who potentially visit the WSI homepage are just as likely to be those not yet engaged in conservation programs, as they are to be program participants. This suggests that WSI can have an impact on those forest landowners who have not yet decided how to engage in conservation practices, one way of which is through the Indiana Classified Programs.

WSI could investigate links through "informal" electronic social networks. Both conservation program participants and non-participants indicated the importance of informal social networks for communicating information.

These informal networks are likely to be important in order for the WSI home page to branch out to new audiences. Suggestions for cross-linkages include other conservation related web pages, such as those in the private sector as well as those in the public sector. Examples include hunting/fishing organization web sites, outdoor recreation clubs, and local community web pages.

One third of the forest landowner respondents indicated that they did not know if they had acres that would qualify for conservation programs. This suggests a need for ongoing information transfer to these groups about the eligibility of their lands.

The diffusion of innovations in information technologies is currently in progress. What remains to be investigated more fully is the impact of these technologies on the ways that people access information and become connected through social networks. We may not completely understand all of the implications of the continued growth in use of IT.

For future communication campaigns, these findings suggest that forest landowners are more likely to be receptive to Internet channels, while agricultural landowners are likely to be receptive to traditional communication campaigns. As more landowners adopt the Internet in the future, the potential for reaching people through electronic media is likely to grow. One use of IT may increasingly be for obtaining natural resource management information.

When using IT, segmentation of audiences may be appropriate. Those promoting sound natural resource management need to better assess what people are looking for from their home pages, ways to better meet the needs of seekers of information from these web-sites, as well as ways to reach nonusers and potential users of these sites. Feedback systems (comment surveys) are one suggestion, where appropriate, for those who facilitate natural resource management web pages to tailor the sites to audiences of interest.

Natural resource management agencies should investigate ways to link to informal social networks using the Internet. In this study, both adopters and non-adopters of conservation programs had equal interest in peer or informal networks. Network cross-linkages for communicating natural resource management information must be investigated.

Information technologies may be challenging the traditional Diffusion of Innovations model. The traditional model has tended to argue for hierarchical processes in communication. For example, with the CRP an extension agent could inform a farmer about the program, and that farmer would contact another, who contacts another farmers, and so on. Theoretically, the Internet allows a private landowner to contact other landowners and obtain information about a conservation program with or without having had previous personal contact with agency personnel.

At the same time, IT does not replace one-on-one contact, e.g., between a district forester and a forest landowner. However, as forests experience increased fragmentation, and more numerous, smaller landholdings replace fewer larger forested areas, it will be increasingly challenging for district and consulting foresters to reach all potential landowners with messages about conservation practices. Use of information technologies as communication tools may help to ease this burden, if they can be used to reach target audiences. Future research will hopefully help us to determine ways for using IT more effectively.