Motivations and behaviors of new forest owners in Virginia

Forestry must find ways to remain relevant to its changing constituency and client base. Market segmentation techniques can help. This study assessed the motivations and forest practices of 661 people who recently purchased forested lands ranging in size between 0.8 and 20 ha in rapidly growing counties in Virginia. Cluster analysis techniques were used to identify six market segments: absentee investors (4%), professionals (13%), preservationists (16%), young families (19%), forest planners (21%), and farmers (21%). (The remaining 6% demonstrated no variance in their responses and were not clustered.) The results suggest that lifestyle and amenity concerns are much more important motivations for landownership than are timber production and economic concerns. We discuss communication strategies, management services, and landowner assistance programs that might appeal to people in each of the six market segments.