The Influence of Financial Incentive Programs in Promoting Sustainable Forestry on the Nation’s Family Forests

ests could provide a larger share of the nation’s timber supply (Stoddard 1942, 1961). Thus, initial programs were designed to help owners of small tracts of forestland be more productive timber managers. The term “sustainable forestry,” described generally as managing forests for their ecological, economic, and social benefits such that these benefits do not diminish in quantity or quality over time, has gained prominence as a desired approach to forest management over the last 20 years. For purposes of this study, the definition of sustainable forestry follows the definition used in the National Report on Sustainable Forests—2003 (USDA Forest Service 2004), which specifically includes the concept of biodiversity. With such a broad and inclusive focus, it is unrealistic to expect that the concept of forest sustainability was explicitly incorporated into the initial incentive programs, given the concept became popular nearly 50 years after the first financial incentive programs were estab-