Family forest owners represent the largest forest ownership group in the United States, but only about a quarter of their land has a forest management plan and only one in five receives professional forest management advice. Identifying communication avenues which provide technical forestry information to these owners is a long-standing problem in American forestry. Programs and activities that increase forest owner engagement have been shown to influence active forest management on these forests, and forest owners’ associations (FOAs) are a key source which supports this type of engagement. We report on a study of the similarities and differences among FOA members and nonmembers in terms of characteristics and forest management behaviors, which will be useful in planning outreach strategies and extension programs. Results indicate that about 16% of the southern forest landowners belong to FOAs, and have multi-objective reasons for owning forest land in the southern United States. FOA members and nonmembers statistically differed in terms of land holdings, reasons for owning forest land, having a management plan, and forest management activities. Members were more likely to be male and have higher incomes. Landowners’ preferred mediums for receiving forestry information varied with their membership status, with members strongly preferring information sharing which involved landowner/forester networking opportunities such as workshop and classes; while nonmembers preferred distance or non-personal means of communications. Findings clearly suggest preference differences in forestry information sources and communication formats to influence forestry behaviors of members and nonmembers in the southern United States.

中文翻译：

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美国南部森林土地所有者协会成员之间和非成员之间的异同

家族林所有者是美国最大的森林所有权集团，但是只有大约四分之一的土地拥有森林管理计划，只有五分之一的人接受专业的森林管理建议。确定为这些所有者提供林业技术信息的交流途径是美国林业中长期存在的问题。事实表明，增加森林所有者参与度的计划和活动会影响这些森林的主动森林管理，而森林所有者协会（FOA）是支持此类参与度的主要来源。我们报告了关于FOA成员和非成员之间在特征和森林经营行为方面的异同的研究，这将对规划推广策略和推广计划很有用。结果表明，约16％的南部森林所有者属于FOA，并且拥有美国南部拥有林地的多目标原因。FOA成员和非成员在土地持有量，拥有林地的原因，制定管理计划以及森林管理活动方面在统计上有所不同。成员更有可能是男性，收入较高。土地所有者接收林业信息的首选媒介因其成员身份而异，成员强烈希望共享涉及土地所有者/森林者网络机会的信息共享，例如讲习班和课程；非会员则首选距离或非个人通讯方式。