Increasing the productivity of minority-owned forest and fallow land in the South requires adjustments in cost-share, incentive, landowner assistance, outreach, and educational programs. Key issues are the prevalence of elderly and heir property landowners and historical distrust of government agencies.

This forum tackles the issue of how to put forests to work on minority landholdings in the South. Many minority landholders have limited resources, including land and capital. With appropriate support, their forest resources could make substantial contributions to the financial and ecological sustainability of their land management. We will discuss challenges and promising initiatives in this area, addressing issues such as identification of and outreach to limited- resource and minority landowners, provision of public services and cost-share, availability of private services for small landholdings, economically and ecologically appropriate options for small-scale management, and collaboration between public, private, local, and voluntary institutions. Open discussion will be initiated by panelists who have field experience with these issues. They represent viewpoints from academia (NC State and NC A&T universities), extension (NC A&T), government agencies (USDA Forest Service), private industry (International Paper), and private voluntary organizations (Penn Center).