The effects of forestland parcelization and ownership transfers on nonindustrial private forestland forest stocking in New York

Nonindustrial private forestland (NIPF) owners control a large percentage of the working forest east of the Mississippi River and supply the forest products industry with the majority of its roundwood requirements. Many of these forests are subject to increasingly frequent parcelization and ownership transfers. Such transfers often are associated with liquidation cuts. This study completed forest inventories on a sample of 137 NIPF woodlots to examine the relationship between parcelization and ownership changes and 23 forest stocking and quality variables. The results indicate that organized subdivisions are associated with lower forest stocking and poorer-quality residual stems. We found no relationship between land tenure and forest stocking and Nonparcelized woodlots with long ownership tenure did not differ in forest stocking and quality.