Looking to the past for the future: Tools, ideas, and considerations on the use of historical data for restoration for the family forest landowner

Background/Question/Methods: Conservation and restoration on private lands has become increasingly more important to protect ecological values such as threatened and endangered species, biodiversity, and promoting native species. Surveys of forest landowners have shown good conservation practices and ecologically sound management are influential in how they want to manage their forest land. However, unfamiliarity and reluctance on where to start or how to implement specific management practices, as well as concerns over finances and time commitment, are often a major deterrence. A powerful tool available to assist landowners is the use of historical data. It can provide information on reference conditions that family forest landowners want to achieve after they are familiar with what conditions should exist on their land. However, historical data is often difficult to find and even harder to interpret, particularly for the typical family forest landowner that may have a limited background with language that ecologists typically understand. Both research and projects primarily focused in Alabama will be used to discuss how past history can assist family forest landowners with making management decisions.

Results/Conclusions: Several sources of historical data may be available that the general public does not know exists. The State of Alabama has an archive of photographs dating to the early 1900s that provide a location and description of the forest types. In addition, there are publications that use the photographs to provide reference conditions. There are also the General Land Office witness tree surveys that can be connected with an association of species through forest cover types. Several on-line tools exist for soils, streams, forests, and watershed assessment if the landowner is able to locate their property on a map or aerial photograph. Using a search engine, such as Google Scholar, can be very beneficial if the landowner knows of keywords they should be searching for. Many family forest landowners want to manage their land with ecological integrity in mind but they are frustrated by a lack of knowledge or guidance in the process. Providing landowners with useful tools and a general overview of how to incorporate this newfound knowledge and tools together is the key to getting them involved in their own historical research.