title: Can incentives make a difference? Assessing the effects of policy tools for encouraging tree-planting on private lands.
abstract: This study uses a mail survey of private landowners in the Midwest United States to understand the characteristics of owners who have planted trees or intend to plant trees in the future. The analysis examines what policy tools encourage owners to plant trees, and how policy tools operate across different ownership attributes to promote tree-planting on private lands. Logistic regression results suggest that cost-subsidizing policy tools, such as low-cost and free seedlings, significantly increase the odds of actual and planned reforestation when landowners consider them important for increasing forest cover. Individuals most likely to plant trees, when low-cost seedlings are available and important, are fairly recent (<5 years), college-educated owners who own small parcels (<4 ha) and use the land for recreation. Motivations to reforest were also shaped by owners' planning horizons, connection to the land, previous tree-planting experience, and peer influence. The study has relevance for the design of policy approaches that can encourage private forestation through provision of economic incentives and capacity to private landowners.
authors.affiliation: Department of Government and Justice Studies, Appalachian State University, Ann Belk Hall 35oE, Boone, NC 28608, USA. Electronic address: rusevatb@appstate.edu.
authors.forename: Tatyana B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Ruseva
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography, and Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
authors.forename: Tom P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.affiliation: School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and The Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop on Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
authors.forename: Burnell C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Fischer
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007196:Indiana; D009042:Motivation; D010067:Ownership; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014197:Trees / Q000254:growth & development*; D014481:United States
keywords: Policy tools; Private forests; Reforestation; Seedlings; Tree-planting