Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

Sun, Changyou

Committee Member

Gordon, Jason S.

Committee Member

Munn, Ian A.

Committee Member

Grebner, Donald L.

Date of Degree

11-25-2020

Original embargo terms

Visible to MSU only for 2 years

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Forestry

Degree Name

Master of Science

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Forest Resources

College

College of Forest Resources

Department

Department of Forestry

Department

Department of Forestry

Abstract

Forest resources are significant in Mississippi's ecology and economy, with 12.5 million acres of Non-Industrial Private Forest (NIPF). Frequent ownership changes with lower durations decrease the average parcel size. The study examined the trends of NIPF parcelization accommodating duration analysis and tax roll data to identify the length of ownerships in an eight-county study. Based on the results, lower duration of ownerships was associated with increased number of smaller parcels less than 11 acres and a substantial loss of large forests. The median duration of ownership was between 10 to 15 years and 59% were absentee NIPF owners. Duration analysis revealed the length of NIPF ownership was highly associated with the size of the forest, sawtimber price, an economic recession, and distance to the closest metropolitan city. Lower ownership durations and smaller parcels will limit economies of scale and alter the functionality and structure of the NIPFs in the future.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/18479

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