US demographic trends are changing forestland ownership patterns; more people now own smaller holdings. This paper explores strategies for closing communication gaps between landowners, program managers, and policymakers, by simultaneously decentralizing efforts, to perform an array of diversified local functions, while coordinating multiple messages and services to new landowner audiences.

A key US forest policy challenge has become working with non-industrial private landowners. Forest policy for private land once focused on the largest forestland ownerships, because this reached the most acreage. However, rapid population growth and changing demographics in the US over the past fifty years require a change of approach. Every year, 150,000 new ownerships, involving 1.6 million acres of private forestland, are created as larger parcels are sold into smaller pieces. Many of these acres are converted to other uses in the process. Fragmentation of once contiguous landscapes can jeopardize the ability of forests to provide ecological and economic goods and services over the long-term.

This paper is a continuation of previous work on how federal programs can meet the needs of private landowners. My examination of the research done on landowner participation in the federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) forestry option brought me to several conclusions. The case study of the CRP provides a window into the national situation that almost any forest policy program will probably have to address. The rising numbers of landowners and holdings requires expanding forestry services, by agencies that are often already stretched to capacity. Programs and incentives must address varying regional and local pressures, and fit increasingly diverse landowner characteristics and ownership patterns. New audiences, with new values and attitudes and little familiarity with forestry, must be reached. Current US Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs need to be better promoted, and more clearly explained to traditional forestry and agricultural extension audiences. Finally, the participation of civic society is critical. Government and the landowners themselves, concerned citizen groups, and other stakeholders must communicate more effectively and strengthen their partnerships if the forested landscape is to remain well-managed.

This paper will explore how improved communications with non-industrial private landowners might help to address changing conditions in the US. It is a challenge for public and private forestry programs to reach the increasingly numerous owners of increasingly smaller parcels of forest, audiences with a diversity of values and goals for their land. Forest policy must be localized to meet this rising diversity, and made relevant to new audiences. This may well require coordination amongst programs and agencies. In cooperation with new public and private partners, with each playing a more specialized role, the range of specific landowner needs may be able to be met. Information about new audiences is necessary to provide information relevant to these new audiences. Innovative approaches, indeed any policy effort, require the feedback of results so that we can adapt and learn over time. Programs must be simultaneously decentralized, to perform an array of localized functions, and centralized, to coordinate multiple messages and services. Communication flows are key, and innovations in digital technology provide new capacities for forest programs to meet changing situations.