Leadership Team for the Statewide Forest Plan
Managing the Impacts of Changes in Wisconsin's Land Use & Forest Ownership
Patterns of land use and forest ownership directly influence the long-term management of Wisconsin's forests and the many economic, social and ecological benefits that those forests provide. Growing suburbs, second homes, and other land uses increasingly convert contiguous forested areas into smaller patches of forest and non-forest. These land use changes in the forest have significant impacts on a broad range of concerns, including: fire control and protection of life, property and resources in the wildland-urban interface; habitat fragmentation and loss of biodiversity; the ability to successfully manage forests for sustainability and productivity; costs of community services and the health of local and state economies. Our ability to preserve the many benefits of our forests depends on how we plan to prevent and manage the impacts of the increasingchanges in land use and forest ownership.
Key Issues:
- Patterns of land use and forest ownership influence long-term forest management. Suburban growth, second homes and other land uses convert contiguous forest into smaller patches.
- Forest fragmentation, the breaking up of large contiguous forest patches into smaller isolated patches, is widespread, as is forest parcelization, or the subdivision of relatively large forest ownerships into smaller parcels owned by more landowners.
- Related issues are providing incentives for landowners to prevent and mitigate impacts of parcelization and fragmentation, and public outreach on changing land uses and forest ownership.
Current Plan of Action
Contact:
Lisa M. Mackinnon, Policy Director
1000 Friends of Wisconsin
16 North Carroll St, Suite 810, Madison, WI 53703
(608) 259-1000, [email protected]
1000 Friends of Wisconsin
Recent Initiatives
- Letter of support from the 1000 Friends of Wisconsin for the Integrated Research & Extension Proposal entitled Defining, Explaining, and Targeting Small- and Medium-Scale Forest Management Practices submitted by Mark Rickenbach and Thomas W. Steele to USDA National Research Initiative.
- Using the Managed Forest Law as a Conservation Tool Workshop Notes