In North Carolina, non-industrial private forestland owners control approximately 78% of the state?s forested resource (18.8 million acres). Because they provide benefits that contribute to the health and economic well-being of the state, it is critically important that this diverse group of people is supplied with research-based forestry information and education to ensure the sustainable management of North Carolina?s natural resources. Researchers have evaluated the efficacy of non-traditional methods of information exchange and have determined overall preferences for information delivery methods, but have been unable thus far to satisfactorily connect particular information delivery preferences with other characteristics of landowners. The objective of this study was to seek out and describe groups within the population of non-industrial private forestland owners with particular information delivery method preferences. Identification of these groups will allow educational efforts to be more directed, making outreach efforts more efficient and cost-effective. A questionnaire was mailed to a stratified random sample of 2600 non-industrial private forestland owners from both urban and rural counties found within each of North Carolina?s seven Cooperative Extension districts. A cluster analysis was performed to identify distinct clientele groups among landowners based on their preferences for delivery methods. These groups were used to correlate preference for information delivery methods with more easily identifiable socio-demographic, land, or management characteristics of individuals. Based on the results, recommendations are made to assist Extension Forestry at North Carolina State University increase its impact on the citizens of the state.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NCSU/oai:NCSU:etd-03292006-073825 |
| Date | 24 April 2006 |
| Creators | Miller, Kevin Todd |
| Contributors | Dennis Hazel, Robert Bardon, Gary Moore |
| Publisher | NCSU |
| Source Sets | North Carolina State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/theses/available/etd-03292006-073825/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to NC State University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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