Forests, Farming and Land Use:  Possible Impacts for Commerce and Recreation

Discussion led by David DeWalle (Penn State) and John Falconer (American Forests)
Note taking by Tony Buda (Penn State)

A. Stakeholders

• Farm groups
  - Grange
  - American Farm Bureau Federation
  - Farmers Union
• Individual Commodity Groups
• Forestry
  - International Association of Arboriculture
  - Tree Farms, Inc.
  - American Forests
  - State Forestry Association
  - American Forest and Pulp Association
  - U.S. Forest Service - Research
  - USDA Ag Research Service
  - NRCS … Conservation District Economic Resource Service
  - Smithsonian/Edgewater, MD
  - State Agencies
• Both
  ­ Policy makers/politicians/stakeholders
  ­ Non-profit sportsmen groups
• Environmental Non-Profit
• Civic Non-Profit
• Local and county government
• Utility landowners
• Federal landowners
  - Forests/parks/Defense Dept.

B. Stakeholder Needs

• Impact on their land and their income
  - Is the prediction reliable?
  - Risk and uncertainty?
  - Adaptation costs?
  - Mitigation (prevention) cost or benefit?

C. Questions for Stakeholders

• Where do you go for information?
• How does weather affect you?
  - Seasonal variations
  - Drought
• How do you adapt?
• What is your most important source of valid info?
• What could cause you not to take action?
  - Policy disincentives/barriers
  - Costs
• What would cause you to take actions or change policy?
  - Land dependent ecosystem
  - Very sensitive to weather
  - Economically vulnerable
  - Foresters' long-term decisions
  - Issue that drives them out o business
  - Crops and forests positive CO2 feedback
  - Conservative/resistant to change
  - Farmers' strong communication link to Cooperative Extension
  - Land use controls very fragmented

Farmers and Drought

Convince me that I should pay attention - risk and uncertainty affect credibility

• Component:
  1. Land impacts
  2. Affect economics
  3. Health - humans/animals safety
  4. Quality of life

• Approaches to adapt/mitigate/prevent
  1. Costs vs. benefits

D. Providing Information

• Use example of current environmental situation
• Prudent to plan for climate change to happen, even though uncertain
• Information formats - no one strategy suited, tailor to each group
• National Panel of Scientists, credible sources
• Ag Extension agents
• Peer group info
• Must know if extreme events will be more frequent or severe
• Trends too gradual
• Foresters have long-term concerns but farmers' concerns are annual

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