Survey of Family Forest Owners Regarding Invasive Insects in the Connecticut River Watershed 2017

Forest insects have significant direct impacts on forest ecosystems; they are also generating new risks, uncertainties, and opportunities for forest landowners. Our research objective is to understand: (1) whether and how insect infestations are shifting land-use regimes in New England by altering human decision-making, (2) how these changes to human decisions may affect regional forest ecosystems and the provisioning of select ecosystem services, and (3) how subsequent changes to forest ecosystems, in turn, affect landowners. The dataset is a result of gathering information from a random sample of family forest owners (FFOs) in the Connecticut River Watershed; FFOs own approximately half of the private forestland in the region. We collected information on characteristics and perceptions of these FFOs as well as their intentions for their land if faced with the presence or threat of invasive forest insects. To better understand FFO intentions, contingent behavior questions populate the conjoint analysis format of the questionnaire. These are the foundational data that form our further efforts to simulate the impacts of insect dynamics and landowner behavior on regional forest ecosystems, including forest carbon stores, forest structure and composition, and timber yields. One of our overarching hypotheses is that forest land-use change in response to insects will have greater near-term ecological consequences than climate change or insects by themselves.

森林昆虫对森林生态系统具有显著的直接影响，同时也为林地所有者带来了全新的风险、不确定性与发展机遇。本研究的核心目标在于解析以下三方面内容：(1) 森林昆虫侵扰是否以及如何通过改变人类决策，推动新英格兰地区的土地利用制度发生转变；(2) 人类决策的此类变化会对区域森林生态系统以及特定生态系统服务的供给产生何种影响；(3) 森林生态系统后续发生的变化又会如何反作用于林地所有者。
本数据集的信息来源于康涅狄格河流域（Connecticut River Watershed）内的家庭林地所有者（family forest owners, FFOs）随机抽样样本；该群体拥有本区域约半数的私有林地。我们收集了这些家庭林地所有者的个人特征、认知态度，以及在遭遇外来森林昆虫侵害或面临其威胁时的土地处置意向。为更深入地解析家庭林地所有者的处置意向，本问卷采用联合分析（conjoint analysis）框架设计了条件行为相关问题。
这些基础数据将支撑我们后续开展的模拟研究，以解析昆虫种群动态与林地所有者行为对区域森林生态系统的影响，涵盖森林碳储量、森林结构与组成以及木材产量等多个维度。本研究的核心假设之一为：相较于气候变化或单一的森林昆虫侵扰，针对昆虫侵害而发生的林地土地利用变化，其短期生态效应更为显著。