Impacts of technical assistance on private nonindustrial reforestation

This study explores the relationship between the number of foresters providing assistance to nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) owners in the southern United States and the NIPF acres planted with pine. For the year 1985, for 29 substate zones in 12 southern states, data were gathered on numbers of NIPF assistance foresters by four types, NIPF acres planted with pine, and several other variables thought to influence levels of pine planting. Using this data, a cross-sectional regression analysis was unable to demonstrate a significant south-wide effect of technical assistance on NIPF tree planting when all significant variables were included in the equations. Within the range of data gathered, equations showed that additional cost sharing and the accompanying forestry assistance should increase reforestation, but added forestry assistance alone is less likely to influence reforestation. Some previous studies support our results, others do not. In the future, if better data on the relevant variables are gathered, more definitive conclusions might be reached about the effects of technical assistance on NIPF reforestation.