INTRODUCTION
In the fall of 2001, the North Quabbin Woods Project surveyed 530 private forest landowners in the nine North Quabbin towns to better understand their attitudes toward forest management and their relationship with their forestland.

We received responses from 45% of the people we surveyed, an excellent response rate! To see the complete results of the survey, please feel free to download the PDF file (562k). For the survey highlights, read on!

WHO OWNS THE FOREST?
Most of the forestland in the North Quabbin is owned by individual private landowners in small parcels. 

There are 1667 individual private landowners in the region.  The average acreage that they own is 55.7 acres.  People that answered the survey tended to have more land, with an average of 59.7 acres. 

About two-thirds of survey respondents live in the North Quabbin. 

Landowners tend to be well educated; over two-thirds hold a college degree. 

Landowners are aging: 70% are over 50 years old, and 30% are over 65 years old.

Local, state, or federal government owns about 41% of forestland in the North Quabbin. Most of this is accounted for by the Metropolitan District Commission, who owns 33,500 acres of watershed land around the Quabbin Reservoir, the Department of Environmental Management, who manages 25,400 acres of state forests, and the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, who manages 11,200 acres for wildlife habitat.

WHY DO PEOPLE OWN LAND?
Landowners have lots of reasons for owning land. Here are the top reasons they cited:

WHAT HAPPENS ON YOUR LAND?
82% of landowners have done some forest-related activities on their land.

The most common activities include boundary work, timber harvesting for income, road building/maintenance.

64% of respondents have harvested timber for income, completed some timber stand management, or managed for wildlife habitat.

WHY NOT MANAGE?
Some landowners indicated why they might choose not to "manage" their woodland. Their reasons included:

MANAGEMENT PLANS
A management plan is an important planning tool for the forest landowner. It consists of a careful inventory of what is found on a piece of woodland and a long-term plan of how the landowner will meet their objectives for income, recreation, forest health, and wildlife on the property.

We found that only 35% of landowners have completed a management plan in the last ten years. 38% of landowners haven't decided if they will write a plan, suggesting that perhaps our project could provide more information for landowners about management planning.

Landowners who have written plans tend to have larger than average land holdings, averaging about 105 acres.

Over two-thirds of landowners who have written a management plan receive the tax benefits of Chapter 61, the state's Current Use law. 

STATE PROGRAM ENROLLMENT
There are two state programs for forest landowners. Chapter 61 rewards landowners with property tax reductions for maintaining open space and actively managing woodland for forest products. The Stewardship Program allows landowners to access federal cost-share money to support a written plan that considers broad forest values.

We found that 32% of survey respondents are enrolled in Chapter 61 and 9% are enrolled in the Stewardship Program. Chapter 61 enrollees own an average of 108 acres.

Four out of ten landowners are not familiar with one of the state programs, suggesting a possible education role for our program. 

HOW TO GET THE WORD OUT
The challenge of educating landowners about forestry is to find the medium that will reach them amidst all the competing bits of information in today's media-saturated world. We asked landowners where they were most likely to get information about their woodland.

The most common sources of forestry information are "My forester" and "Family/Friends". However, less than 10% of landowners expressed interest in neighborhood meetings about forestry.

Over half of landowners indicated that they are very likely to take advantage of publications or brochures.

Three quarters of landowners have internet access, and more than half are on-line daily. The internet may be a good way to provide forestry information for landowners.

WORKSHOP INTEREST
Out of a long list of possible workshop topics, landowners showed the greatest interest in Deciphering human history of the land and Tax Issues for Landowners. Therefore, we will offer both of those workshops this year!

Each of the possible workshop topics had some general appeal. For most of the suggested topics, at least 20-30% of landowners expressed "high interest". If we vary our workshop topics, we are more likely to reach a broader audience. 

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
We'd love to hear from you! Based on the results of this survey, we will be offering a regular series of workshops. You can view the schedule on the calendar section of this website.

On the website, you will also find a list of contact people, websites, and books that can help you learn more about your forest. Check it out!

Interested in suggesting a workshop topic? Email us at northquabbin@northquabbinwoods.org. Interested in helping to organize a workshop? Better still! Have a story that you'd like to tell about your woodland? We'll be starting a regular column in the Athol Daily News. We'd love to tell your story or answer your question! Drop us an email or give us a call.

OK, enough reading — go ahead outside and enjoy the North Quabbin Woods!