Members of the Family Forest Research Center (FFRC), a joint venture between the USDA Forest Service and UMass Amherst, met on January 18-20 in Holdsworth Hall for a long-range planning retreat to map out research aimed at learning more about family forest owner behaviors and the resulting effect on forested landscapes nationwide.
Scientists from Forest Service research labs in Georgia, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Vermont joined FFRC staff, UMass faculty, and participating faculty from Utah State University to review ongoing projects and design new ones. Since almost half the nation’s forest is owned by hundreds of thousands of private families and individuals, an improved understanding of their motivations, concerns, and behaviors will contribute to improved and more effective policy and conservation at the landscape scale. For more information, see: http://www.familyforestresearchcenter.org/index.html
Participating FFRC members included:
- Brett Butler, USDA Forest Service
- David Kittredge, UMass Amherst
- Paul Catanzaro, UMass Amherst
- Jaketon Hewes, UMass Amherst
- Marla Lindsay, UMass Amherst
- Tyler Van Fleet, UMass Amherst
- Kate Losey, UMass Amherst
- Marla Emery, USDA Forest Service, Burlington, VT
- John Schelhas, USDA Forest Service, Athens, GA
- Evan Mercer, USDA Forest Service, North Carolina
- Stephanie Snyder, USDA Forest Service, St. Paul, MN
- Zhao Ma, Utah State University