The forests of Saint John's University played backdrop for a productive conference attended by over 70 private woodland owners, forestry professionals an others to focus specifically on Family Forest Stewardship. The goal of the conference was to agree on what we need to do – as a state -- to increase the number of acres of family forest land with Forest Stewardship Management Plans from 1.3 million today to 2.3 million by 2015.

• Conference Proceedings
• Conference Evaluation
• Program Agenda
• Speaker Bios and Abstracts
• SCS Gap Analysis - Fulll Report (.pdf) and Summary (.pdf)

Opening Keynote Presentation

Tom Kroll, Land Manager and Arboretum Director at Saint John's Abbey and University opened the conference with a provocative presentation of the challenges and opportunities faced getting to the next million acres. Kroll introduced the recommendations, developed by a wide range of people interested in the future of Minnesota’s forests as a starting point to start the discussion and mailed to participants prior to the conference.

• .pdf of Kroll's presentation

Panel Discussion

The recommendations were further defined during a panel discussion moderated by Mike Majeski, USFS North Central Research Station. Speakers included:

• E.G. Nadeau, Cooperative Development Services .pdf of presentation
• Eli Sagor, University of MN Extension Service .pdf of presentation
• Kathryn Fernholz, Dovetail Partners, Inc. .pdf of presentation
• Doug Anderson, MN DNR Division of Forestry
• Leland Kessler, MN Association of Consulting Foresters

Lunch Keynote Presentation

Doug McKenzie-Mohr gave a compelling keynote address about what works in terms of getting people to actually change behavior on the ground – or in the woods. New "social marketing" insights gained through McKenzie-Mohr's talk were incorporated "real time" in the afternoon small group sessions.

• .pdf of McKenzie-Mohr's presentation
• .pdf of McKenzie-Mohr's handout

Conference Outcomes

1) Increase family forest land under sustainable management - Participants endorsed the recommendation to increase by 2015 the number of family forest acres with forest management plans by one million.

2) Establish a dedicated, self-sustaining Family Forest Initiative with stable annual revenues - Participants identified a number of potential funding mechanisms including LCCMR and DEED for seed money, DOE, revolving loans, fishing/hunting taxes, surcharge per cord harvested and fee for service options..

3) Revise the Sustainable Forestry Incentive Act (SFIA) - Blandin Foundation to provide funding for study to investigate optimal SFIA incentive payment structures; modified recommendation to broaden study to address other tools for behavior change beyond tax incentives and to explore some of the questions posed during the conference.

4) Revamp the ad valorem property tax system’s inherent bias to overtax undeveloped land in comparison to developed land with respect to the public services provided to their owners - Participants encouraged VFVC to further research/pursue/discuss options for eliminate tax system’s bias against undeveloped/conserved lands.

• .pdf of Tom Kroll's proposal to address disparities in the property tax system that drive parcelization and fragmentation of Minnesota's working forests.

5) New Topic - Social Marketing Considerations (Behaviors/Barriers) - Two groups work to uncover the barriers to family forest owners completing forest stewardship plans and the behaviors to be reinforced.

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