Stewardship Planning on Conservation Easements in the Forest Legacy Program

Abstract

Stewardship plans have great potential to preserve and strengthen the values which conservation easements seek to protect. Plans allow easement holders and land managers to adapt to changing conditions and priorities. Yet little is understood about how land managers experience the process of stewardship planning and whether creating a stewardship plan affects forest management practices. Based on qualitative interviews with land managers affiliated with 19 Forest Legacy Program-funded conservation easements in New Hampshire, this study explores land owner/manager experiences with planning and seeks to determine the degree of influence such plans bear on forest management practices. A number of challenges were experienced by respondents in creating plans" particularly surrounding natural resource inventory data and public access. Plans and related activities were found to be more likely to bear influence on the forest management practices of nonprofit, municipal and private non-industrial owners than on forest practices of professional timber managers.