Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 209 p. : ill., col. maps. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-52).

In 1978, the Federal government passed the Forestry Assistance Act which provides guidelines for states to support management on non-industrial private lands through the Forest Stewardship Program (FSP). In 1983, Illinois passed the Illinois Forestry Development Act which outlines the specific requirements for non-industrial private landowners residing in Illinois to take advantage of the FSP. Since the inception of the program, there has been little analysis to determine the quality of land enrolled in the FSP. Launched in 2004, the Spatial Analysis Project is a program sponsored by the US Forest Service to determine the type of land enrolled within FSP. Within each state, the SAP used an aggregate analysis based upon multiple criteria to divide all land available for the FSP into three categories - low, medium, and high stewardship potential. The objective of this project was twofold, first to determine if Illinois is effectively enrolling lands in the high stewardship potential category. Secondly, because timber production must be the primary goal of a FSP plan in Illinois, this study analyzed whether lands classified as high stewardship potential were also high in forest productivity. Results indicate that while Illinois is effectively enrolling high stewardship potential lands, these lands are not necessarily highly productive. This information could be used to give preference for cost-share assistance to those lands that are classified as highly productive, particularly in times when funding is limited, rather than on a first come, first served basis.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 60 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-60).

Forests provide immense goods and services to both local and regional communities. The USDA Forest Service’s, State and Private Forestry program administer multiple landowner assistance programs aimed at helping private forest owners while supporting the continued supply of ecosystem services (e.g., timber harvesting, recreation, carbon sequestration and storage). The two landowner assistance programs assessed in this study are the Forest Legacy Program (FLP) and the Forest Stewardship Program (FSP). A majority of the nation’s forests are privately owned, many of which are facing deleterious impacts like wildfires, invasive species, development pressures, and other adverse effects from climate change. The goal of this project is to (1) quantify the economic contributions emanating from lands participating in FLP and FSP in the conterminous US and (2) quantify and value the carbon sequestration on lands participating in FLP and FSP in New England. IMPLAN is an input-output modeling system, used in Chapter 1, that estimates how money flows through a regional economy. The results from the IMPLAN analysis suggest that FLP lands in the conterminous US contribute an estimated 4,560 jobs and $306.8 million in value-added from timber harvesting and recreation. Further, FSP lands contribute an estimated 27,700 jobs and $1.8 billion in value added from timber harvesting and recreation. Using Forest Inventory and Analysis carbon sequestration data and the social cost of carbon, the results of chapter 2 suggest that, in New England, FLP lands sequester 147,000 metric tons of CO2, or $7.5 million in aboveground CO2, per year. FSP lands in New England are estimated to sequester 82,000 metric tons of CO2, or $4.1 million in CO2, per year. Quantifying and estimating the economic and ecosystem service contributions emanating from lands participating in FLP and FSP provide a framework for understanding the total benefits associated with these programs (e.g., supporting rural economies, impacting climate change and the global carbon network, etc.).