Research PapersHardwood Rangeland Landowners in California from 1985 to 2004: Production, Ecosystem Services, and Permanence
Section snippets
INTRODUCTION
Development of programs for influencing management of private rangelands should be based on a strong understanding of landowner goals, needs, and circumstances (Coppock and Birkenfield 1999). A survey approach is often chosen for such an assessment, and for understanding the factors that influence manager decisions. Previous rangeland survey research has linked management practices and goals to aspects of property or operation size (Huntsinger and Fortmann 1990; Rowe et al. 2001; Kreuter et al.
Survey Design
Sampling and methodology is consistent for all three surveys, but in 2004 questions were added about conservation easements and land trusts because of their high visibility in oak woodland conservation. Surveys were pretested, and then owners of hardwood rangeland throughout the state were surveyed by mail, using the standard four-wave technique described by Dillman (1978) to achieve a high response rate. The greater the response rate, the less “self-selection” bias influences responses and
Owner Characteristics and Rangeland Use
There has been no significant change in landowner demographics, but significantly fewer owners are earning their income from ranching, and more are relying on “other sources” of income, such as investments, pensions, and self-employment (Table 1). In 2004, respondents owned a total of 272 000 ha. Using the weighted sample, an estimated 20% of the woodlands belong to absentee owners, and 17% belong to landowners with a paid property manager.
There have been significant changes in land use since
DISCUSSION
Overall, relationships between property size and the goals, attitudes, and practices of landowners remain consistent with the simple typology developed from the 1985 survey, where properties < 80 ha, 80 ha to 2008 ha, and > 2 008 ha were compared (Huntsinger and Fortmann 1990). Summarizing the results for then and now, owners of larger properties usually produce livestock and live in the woodlands primarily because of a family business, participate in voluntary land conservation programs such as
IMPLICATIONS
Programs that will help livestock producers to jointly produce ecosystem services and livestock products are needed to conserve unfragmented private rangelands. This includes developing management strategies that create production and conservation synergies, and developing income streams for ecosystem service provisioning that increase as the area conserved increases. Hardwood rangeland landowners and rangeland landowners in much of the West have demonstrated a willingness to financially
Acknowledgments
Thanks are especially due to the landowners of California's oak woodlands, especially those who have stalwartly participated in this survey over the years. Adriana Sulak, Jose Oviedo-Pro, and Adina Rissmann all contributed their expertise to aspects of the research and write-up. Thanks to the journal reviewers and Paul F. Starrs for their very helpful reviews.
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Research was funded by the Integrated Hardwood Range Management Program of the University of California, the California Agricultural Experiment Station, and the California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources CORE grant program.