Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, 28,2(December 1996):323–336 O 1996 Southern Agricultural Economics Association Program Participation Behavior of

This study provides an analysis of nonindustrialprivate forest (NIPF) landowners ’ partic-ipation in forestry assistanceprograms. A probit model was used for data collected from a random sample of 329 Indianalandowners. The analysis revealed thattotal land owned, commercial reasons for ownership, government sources of information, and membership in forestry organizations influenced NIPF landowners ’ program participation.Age, fear of loss of property rights, and duration since the first wooded tract was acquired also influ-enced program participation.Location of landowners ’ residence on their wooded land and landowners ’ knowledge of and willingness to participatein a conservation easementinflu-enced the participationin cost-share programs. Key Words: classified forestry programs, cost-share programs, nonindustrialprivate forest landowners, participationbehavior, probit. Wooded land occupies 4.4 million acres, or 19.3 % of the total land area of 23 million acres in Indiana. Nonindustrial private forests (NIPF) represent 87 % of the commercial for-est land and supply 9390 of the sawtimber har-vested (Smith and Golitz). Several gover-nment programs, both with and without financial incentives, have been developed to encourage NIPF landowners to reforest, im-prove timber stands, increase wildlife habitat, reduce soil erosion, and protect water quality VenkataraoNagubadi and Kevin T. McNamara are graduateresearchassistantandassociateprofessor,re