Public Attitudes and Affective Beliefs about Early- and Late-Successional Stages of the Great Northern Forest

Occurrence of the early successional stage of forests (i.e., 20 years old or less) has declined since 1980 throughout the Great Northern Forest (GNF) of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. To help forestry professionals and land managers better understand the human dimensions of this change in successional diversity, we conducted a mail survey with stratified, random samples of 2,000 rural and 2,000 nonrural households within the GNF. We assessed affective beliefs and attitudes toward early successional and late-successional (i.e., 100 years old or more) stages of the GNF and attitudes toward the use of timber management to sustain the early successional stage. We found no differences between rural and nonrural respondents with respect to attitudes or affective beliefs. Indeed, all GNF residents have positive attitudes toward both early- and late-successional stages, with the most positive attitudes associated with the older forest stage. Similarly, although residents expressed positive affective beliefs about both stages, the late-successional stage elicited the most positive emotional responses. Both rural and nonrural residents expressed relatively positive attitudes toward use of timber management to sustain early successional stages. Similarities in attitudes and beliefs among rural and nonrural residents suggest that communities of more similar interests than expected occur throughout the GNF, with respect to forest management goals and strategies.