Implementation of forest stewardship plans: Understanding the extent of forestry practices applied on enrolled properties in West Virginia

The purpose of this study was to understand the extent of forest management that is occurring on private forestlands enrolled in the West Virginia Forest Stewardship Program. To quantify the amount of forest management being applied, 295 telephone interviews were conducted in the Fall of 2005 inquiring participants about ten common forest management practices and extent of their implementation, in terms of acreage or mileage. In addition, this study sought to understand the factors associated with the number of respondents that had implemented practices as well as the amount of forestland on which these practices were applied, including practice recommendation, landownership objectives, and the use of cost-share programs. Sixty-five percent of the telephone survey respondents had participated in an earlier assessment of the state\u27s FSP (Jennings, 2003). By linking the databases from these two studies, inconsistencies in responses pertaining to management practice implementation were examined