Within the Canadian prairies, there has been extensive loss and degradation of wetland and riparian zones, primarily caused by the intensification and expansion of agriculture. Since most of the wetland and riparian areas found within this agricultural landscape are located on privately owned land, effective policy must be informed by an understanding of the socio-economic characteristics of these landowners.

The recent rise of institutional timberland ownership has led to a significant change in the structure and conduct of the timber industry in the United States. In this study, we apply a two‐period harvest model to assess the timber harvesting behavior of various landowners at the stand level by utilizing USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis data for nine southern states. Forest industry and institutional timberland owners were found to be more likely to conduct partial and final harvests than nonindustrial private forest landowners.

Private forest landowners in the southernmost region of Illinois operate within a multijurisdictional, intermixed public–private landscape. As such, they operate within the context of traditionally studied drivers of forest management on private lands, but also manage their lands within the context of the contentious debate about how the Shawnee National Forest is managed. We posited that this debate about the management of public land could affect forest management actions on private parcels.

Non-industrial private forest is the dominant ownership type in the eastern USA. Most of the private owners have non-consumptive, appreciative values and through surveys report little interest in the generation of timber revenue. Timber harvesting in Massachusetts was investigated for a 25-year period to compare the frequency and volume of harvests for five commercial species on private land, to species-specific stumpage prices reported on a quarterly basis.

Using data collected from a series of focus groups, this study examines how landowner assistance programs (which may include management plans, cost-share, technical assistance and advice, and education components) affect family forest owner behaviour in the USA. Not surprisingly, most owners who participated in assistance programs had pre-existing management objectives.

Private property accounts for much of the planet's arable land, and most of this has been cleared for agricultural production. Agricultural areas retain only fragments of their original vegetation and this has been detrimental to many native plant and animal species. Habitat restoration and revegetation may be able to reconnect and enlarge existing remnant areas in agricultural landscapes and, thereby, enhance native plant and animal communities. However, conservation initiatives will be successful only if landowners actively participate in restoration actions.

The emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, is an exotic invasive insect causing extensive mortality to ash trees, Fraxinus spp., in Canada and the United States. Detection of incipient populations of this pest is difficult because of its cryptic life stages and a multiyear time lag between initial attack and the appearance of signs or symptoms of infestation. We sampled branches from open-grown urban ash trees to develop a sample unit suitable for detecting low density A. planipennis infestation before any signs or symptoms are evident.

Acacia koa is a valuable tree species economically, ecologically and culturally in Hawai'i. A vascular wilt disease of A. koa resulting from infection by the fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. koae (FOXY) causes high rates of mortality in field plantings and threatens native A. koa forests in Hawai'i. Landowners are reluctant to consider A. koa for reforestation and restoration in many areas due to the threat of FOXY. Producing seeds or propagules with genetic resistance to FOXY is vital to successful A. koa reforestation and restoration.

Tall buttercup is an invasive forb that has been reported in all but eight states and one Canadian province. The species has been of concern in Montana where it has invaded over 8,300 ha, and it has been particularly problematic in irrigated hayfield meadows that are used for forage production. This study sought to develop an integrated management strategy to control tall buttercup while maintaining forage production. Research was conducted over 2 yr at flood-irrigated and subirrigated hayfield meadows near Twin Bridges, MT.

Traditional nationwide agri-environmental policy measures are not always efficient to ensure the provision of environmental services that would match peoples’ preferences. This study suggests a landscape value trade (LVT) scheme to be locally implemented so as to ensure the supply of agricultural landscape attributes demanded by local citizens. The feasibility of LVT, a ‘user-financed’ payment for environmental services (PES) scheme, is analysed in a local case from the southern part of Finland. We examine the disposition of both landowners (sellers) as well as residents (buyers).

Thermal water quality trading is an emerging policy tool that allows thermal polluters to comply with effluent restrictions by paying nearby landowners to plant shade trees. We created a system dynamics model of a hypothetical thermal trading program and conducted scenario analysis to study how weather, climate, and trading behavior might influence program effectiveness.

Property rights over natural resources became a distinct area of inquiry in environmental economics and policy in the last decades, but their role has not yet been investigated thoroughly. Transition countries represent an excellent material of analysis of various policies and institutional developments concerning the regime of use and management of natural resources. The processes of societal transformation had deep impacts on the forestry sector, entailing land reforms and subsequent changes to its institutional and organisational framework.