Full Citation
Title: Landowner functional types to characterize response to invasive forest insects
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2020
ISBN:
ISSN: 2575-8314
DOI: 10.1002/pan3.10065
NSFID:
PMCID:
PMID:
Abstract: 1. Invasive forest insects can induce tree mortality in two ways: (a) by directly harming trees; or (b) by influencing forest owners to pre-emptively harvest threatenedtrees. This study investigates forest owners’ intentions to harvest trees threatened by invasive insects.2. Our first objective is to identify and characterize agent functional types (AFTs) offamily forest owners in the northeastern United States using a set of contingentbehaviour questions contained in a mail survey. We establish AFTs as a form ofdimension reduction, effectively casting landowners into a typology in which eachtype (AFT) has distinct probabilities of tree harvesting in response to forest insects. Our analysis identifies three functional types of landowners: ‘Cutters’ (46%of respondents; high intent to harvest trees impacted by invasive forest insects),‘Responsive Cutters’ (42% of respondents; intent sensitive to insect impact severity), and ‘Non-cutters’ (12% of respondents; low intent to cut).3. Our second objective is to model AFT membership to predict the distribution ofAFTs across the landscape. Predictors are chosen from a set of survey, geographicand demographic features. Our best AFT-prediction model has three predictorvariables: parcel size (hectares of forest), geographical region, and town-level forested fraction. Application of the model provides a high-resolution probability distribution of AFTs across the landscape.4. By coupling human and insect behaviour, our results allow for holistic assessmentsof how invasive forest insects disturb forests, inclusive of the management response to these pests.
Url: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/pan3.10065
Url: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/pan3.10065
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Authors: Holt, Jonathan R.; Borsuk, Mark E.; Butler, Brett J.; Kittredge, David B.; Laflower, Danelle; MacLean, Meghan G.; Markowski‐Lindsay, Marla; Orwig, David; Thompson, Jonathan R.
Periodical (Full): People and Nature
Issue: 1
Volume: 2
Pages: 204-216
Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Land Use/Urban Organization, Natural Resource Management
Countries: