The Causes and Socioeconomic Implications of Land Use Change in the Southern Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee

Robin Gottfried (Presenter), Department of Economics, The University of the South

James Peters, Department of Philosophy, The University of the South

Douglass Williams, Department of Economics, The University of the South

Josiah Daniel, Undergraduate, The University of the South

Mark Tucker, Undergraduate, The University of the South

This paper describes a series of ongoing research projects that parallel the Small Area study of the Southeastern

Forest Assessment and their results to date. The paper begins by providing a theoretical framework that relates external drivers to land manager decisionmaking, land use change, ecological change, and resulting changes in economic development. It then describes the case study area: approximately one million acres, the top of the Cumberland Plateau's seven southernmost counties in Tennessee. The authors discuss a series of interrelated analyses of causes of land use change at the parcel level. These include analyses of survey data on landowner motivations for holding land and on their management objectives, and spatially explicit empirical analyses of conversion of hardwood forest to other uses, using locational, tax and landowner survey information. These analyses utilize spatially explicit data on hardwood conversion from the Small Area Assessment. Given measurements of the extent of forest change and its causes, the paper discusses the role of the timber and wood products industry in the region and the possible role(s) of forests in the future development of the region given the probable direction of land use change. Particular attention is directed to tourism and recreation, questions of sustainability, and policy. The paper ends by discussing proposals for disseminating research results to the counties.

Workshop I: People and Forests

Sustaining
Southern
Forests

a conference sponsored by the Southern Forest Resource Assessment