The document summarizes research on the effectiveness of an 8-week woodland management course for private woodland owners. Surveys and interviews with past course participants found that the course most influenced decisions around controlling invasive species, with over 70% of respondents reporting doing so. While the course also increased knowledge, some owners cited contextual factors like land tenure and financial needs as influencing woodland management decisions beyond just education.

1. So you did a workshop –
what did you really
accomplish?
Brian J. MacGowan and Linda S. Prokopy
Purdue University
West Lafayette, IN, USA
macgowan@purdue.edu
@WildlifeBrian
lprokopy@purdue.edu
@lprokopy

2. 7. social, economic, and environmental
conditions
6. behaviors of the participants
5. knowledge, attitudes, skills, and aspirations
of participants
4. evidence of participant satisfaction and
engagement
3. involvement of learners and volunteers
2. any educational session such as a class,
workshop, seminar, field day, or consultation
1. time, money, human capital, in-kind support
from external organizations, donations
Bennett’s Hierarchy of Effectiveness

3. Desirable Outcomes for Woodland Owners
• Develop a new, or modify an existing management
plan
– 4% have a plan in the U.S. (Butler 2008)
• Control invasive plants
– Impacts to natural resources, human values and
recreation (NISC 2006)
• Obtain advice from a professional forester
– 16% receive professional advice (Butler 2008)
• Harvest timber sustainably
– ~10% of harvests in Indiana are conducted with
supervision by a forester
http://www.earthdefine.com/spatialcover_landcover/indiana_2011-13/
86% of the 4.65 million
acres owned by
~190,000 private
landowners

4. Forest Management for the Private Woodland
Owner
• 8-week course with 8, 3-hour sessions and 2 field trips
• Extension foresters Lenny Farlee and Ron Rathfon
• Tree identification, forest biology, planning, management
practices, invasive species control, selling timber, financial
management, wildlife, resources and assistance
• Over 20-year history

5. Research Questions
• Did course participants do the desired activities?
• What influences decisions to implement a variety of woodland
activities?

6. Methods - Survey
• Mixed-mode, 5-stage survey design (Dillman et al. 2014)
– Mail with online option
• During April-June, 2016, we mailed surveys to 296
participants from 13 classes held in 2007-15.

7. Survey Questions
• 8-week course
– Motivations for attending, KASA pre/post, influence on activities
post-attendance
• Woodlands
– Motivations for owning, size & term
• Woodland activities
– Program enrollment, management practices over the past 5 years
• Sources of information

8. Methods - Interviews
• In-person, semi-structured interviews
• Interviewed a random subset of survey respondents
– 24 people in 22 interviews
– 1 phone interview
• Interviews transcribed then identified themes in NVivo

9. Interview Guide
• Woodland management
• 8-week course and education
• Woodland activities scope and success
– Professional forester
– Management plan
– Timber harvesting
– Invasive species control

10. Results - Survey
• Received a 188 usable responses (65.5% response rate)
• Average course participant
– 92% male, 62 years old, 49.6% retired
Still own woods (n = 164)
– 80.3 ac of woodlands owned
– 26.3 years owned
– 55% have a management plan
– 62% enrolled in Classified Forest Program
– 51% enrolled in other cost-share program (CRP, WHIP, EQIP, FIP)

11. Woodland activities over the past 5 years
Activity % Respondents
Hiked/walked 94.0
Viewed wildlife 90.4
Controlled invasive species 73.7
Hunted 64.1
Applied herbicide, pesticides or fertilizers 56.9
Wildlife/fish habitat improvement projects 52.7
Built or performed maintenance on roads/trails 52.1
Prepared land and/or planted trees 49.1
Conducted a timber harvest 25.7
Fished 24.0
Controlled/prescribed fire 10.2
Reduced fire hazard 10.2

12. Management of my woodlands improved because
of what I learned
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
Strongly disagree Somewhat
disagree
Neither disagree
nor agree
Somewhat agree Strongly agree

13. 1 2 3 4 5
Talk to others
Services of a forester
Comfortable process of selling timber
Able to manage woodlands
Decisions informed by LT plan
Aware of sources of assistance
Knowledge about your woodlands
Understand were to find professionals
Trust in Purdue Extension
After Before
1 = Not at all
5 = Very much
Understand where to find professionals 75%
80%

14. How did what you learn in the course influence your decision to
do the following activities?
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Modify an existing plan
Harvest timber from my woodlands
Develop a new management plan
Enhance wildlife habitat on my woodlands
Plant trees or shrubs on my property
Speak to others about woodland management
Conduct timber stand improvement
Recommend professional forester to others
Use the services of a professional forester
Control invasive plants on my woodlands
Slightly influenced Moderately influenced Strongly influenced

15. Course influenced my decision to do the following activities
(did not, slight, moderate, strong)
Develop
plan
Modify
plan
Enhance
wildlife
habitat
Harvest
timber
Control
invasives
Use
professional
forester
Talk to
others
Land
tenure
Correlation
Coefficient 0.064 0.102 -0.092 .199* 0.019 .185* 0.150
Sig. (2-
tailed) 0.421 0.209 0.249 0.012 0.816 0.02 0.06
Woodland
acres
Correlation
Coefficient -0.034 -0.044 -.177* 0.068 -0.065 -0.014 -0.041
Sig. (2-
tailed) 0.673 0.593 0.028 0.402 0.424 0.864 0.616

16. Likelihood of attending woodland education program in the future
Course influenced my decision to do the following activities
(did not, slight, moderate, strong)
Develop
plan
Modify
plan
Enhance
wildlife
habitat
Control
invasives
Talk with
others
Harvest
timber
Use
professional
forester
Correlation
Coefficient .332** .345** .317** .426** .440** .134 .334**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000 .000 .000 .000 .000 .092 .000

17. Interest in woodland education – stewardship
Well, the mean drive for having the interest is just the fact that I
owned quite a bit of it and so I wanted to take better care of it.
So I guess we were concerned that people were destroying their
woods just for farming money, money for that. So I guess I was
concerned that people keep their woods, don't get rid of the woods,
because it's important, because of cleaning up the air and all that
stuff.
I mean, I almost live in the woods and I should know more about it.

18. Interest in woodland education – connections and
networks
And it was the Henry county extension educator, DNR that told
me about the Purdue course, since I was on the master gardener
mailing list he told everybody in the program about it so that’s
how I even found out it existed in the first place.
I can’t think of the gentleman’s name, but we got invited…We
had applied-the property’s in CRP, classified forest, so he spoke
with me the importance understanding that.

19. Controlling invasive species
The course definitely taught me technique and inspired me to do it.
Well, it makes me feel like I'm not being a good steward if I ignore it and
don't remove it.
Well, once you get exposed to methods of control, and you become
knowledgeable about how to do it, then I felt an obligation to get out there
and do it. So if you don't know what's out there, and if the ignorance is bliss,
but once you're aware, once you have the knowledge of what to look for and
you see it, then I felt obligated and a definite interest in getting out there and
ridding us of it.

20. No to timber harvesting
I have no desire to right now.
Again, I don't think they're that pretty once you do it, and I don't want to be
looking out the windows at tree tops. I want to be looking out at the
animals, the landscape, the-- like in the spring, I planted daffodils all in there.
Watched them come up. That kind of thing.
In part, I don't need the money and I don't have the time. And would really
want to do it right and honestly, I don't want to make the mess right now. I
know the mess goes away but it's a mess for a few years.

21. Yes to timber harvesting
Just mature trees that were going downhill. And some were taken
out just to allow growth of the trees we wanted in there.
A lot of trees were dying. I spend a lot of time in the woods, and I
guess it bothers me. I don't like to let dollars go to waste. So I always
think that I'm doing good…
I'll tell you what I'm trying not to tell you, is when I was really close to
having my house paid for and the bid was enough to pay my house
off, then that's what I did.

22. Importance for maintaining the health of your
woodlands
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Not harvesting trees
Harvesting trees
Enhancing wildlife habitat
Management or stewardship planning
Conducting timber stand improvement
Controlling invasive plants
Not at all important
Somewhat important
Moderately important
Extremely important

23. Making better decisions
Different types of contracts and then the way to view a timber
harvest and the correct way to do it. It definitely from where I
work in an area where a lot of the individuals are timberland
owners, and reflecting back on what the class taught us versus
what is out on the street as far as marking timber, I feel that the
class helped make me make much better decisions than had I
just listened to the average person that says cut everything
above 18 inches first height diameter or take your oaks and don't
do anything with your woods prior or after post-harvest.

24. Knowing who to turn to for advice
If I hadn't done the course, and he hadn't been one of the guest
speakers, I'm not sure how I would've gone about learning the
best way to do a harvest, but it wouldn't have been the right one,
probably.
Oh, it made us a lot more knowledgeable. It made us a lot
smarter, I think, because we didn't know about all this stuff.

25. Reinforcing information for those already engaged
Yeah. At least now we have a clue what we're doing and we're
doing something right.
[It] was a confirmation about that's something I should continue
to do on a regular basis

26. Diffusion of Innovations (Rogers 1962, 2003)
http://denninginstitute.com/pjd/TT/

27. Conclusions
• Providing knowledge is still an important part in the process
• Decisions to engage in behaviors are contextual but invasive
species control provides the most potential
– Emphasize doing the right thing and being a good steward
• Non-behavioral outcomes can contribute to future decisions
– Better communication with advisors
– Knowledge to do something the right way if they choose to do it (i.e.
timber harvest)
– Confirming an already existing behavior
• Involve participants in course instruction when possible

28. Acknowledgement
Funding
• Purdue University
• USDA, Renewable Resources
Extension Act (RREA)
People
• NRSS lab at Purdue University, Laura
Esman
• Ron Rathfon, Lenny Farlee
• PhD Committee: L. Prokopy, Z. Ma, J.
Beckerman, K. Genskow, J. Ayers