Landowner Satisfaction with Timber Harvesting on West Virginia Forest Stewardship Program Properties

We conducted a survey of 3,092 private forest owners enrolled in the West Virginia Forest Stewardship Program to assess program outcomes during its first decade. A component of this assessment was a set of questions designed to bring to light the outcomes of timber harvesting experiences that these landowners may have encountered. Among the 1,672 questionnaires (63% response rate after removing undeliverable addresses) that were returned for our assessment of recommended forestry practices implementation, 445 (27%) respondents indicated that they had conducted a timber sale on their stewardship properties. This article looks at satisfaction ratings among these 445 respondents with regard to the results of their timber transactions. Factors closely associated with satisfaction in the condition of respective forest properties following timber harvesting were satisfaction with the amount of revenue generated from the harvest, whether or not a discussion of best management practices (BMP) took place, and whether a contract was present. This latter variable was negatively related to landowner satisfaction level, but this may be more of a numerical artifact than a finding that would encourage a change in recommendations for contracts.