Landowner attitudes and perceptions of forest and wildlife management in rural northern Missouri

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] Understanding how resources are being managed begins with understanding the owners of the resource, the landowners. Improving Missouri's forest resources is dependent on these private landowners. Developing strategies to work with and promote sustainable forestry to this diverse array of landowners will be aided by an attitudinal typology or grouping of landowners with similar interests and goals for their property. Cluster analysis was used to combine landowners with similar interests based on attitudinal information gathered from a mail questionnaire to forest landowners in Macon County, Missouri. The clusters were then analyzed based on objective data gathered in the questionnaire, such as demographic and land management information. This resulted in seven types: the Absentee Hunter- uses the property mainly for recreation purposes while residing elsewhere; the Agrarian/Steward - resides on the property and uses it mainly for agricultural operations but recognizes and has a desire to manage for certain wildlife species; the Residential Landowner - likely resides on the property and owns it for a residence and recreation with little interest in income from it; The Agrarian/Economic - views the land as an income source through agricultural enterprises; this type is less apt to participate and manage for wildlife related activities; The Wildlife Manager - respondents own land to hunt and fish on; they like to do things to help wildlife and indicate they are doing active management for wildlife; The Uncertain Landowner - tend not to have strong opinions about their land and show little interest in managing the land; The Next Generation Landowner - the group has a high percentage of respondents that inherited land and intend to pass the land to their children; they do not have rural lifestyle preference and while some generate income from the land, the sources of income are mainly from government payments or share cropping. Finally, outreach efforts were discussed relative to potential impact and use of various methods for each of the seven clusters.