Endowment Releases Phase One Summary of Historic Hispanic Forest Landowner Study

For Immediate Release (November 3, 2022)

Greenville, SC – The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) released a summary of findings from a recent study of Hispanic forest landowners across the United States. Despite increasing attention to diversity in forestry, there have been limited national studies of racial and ethnic minority family forest owners in the U.S. Most programs and policies have focused on nonminority family forest owners’ statistics. The National Woodland Owner Survey estimates that minority owners own 5.1 percent of the family forestland in the U.S; 10.5 million acres and comprise 209,000 owners.

Highlights include:

There are more than an estimated 17,000 Hispanic forest-landowners across the United States, excluding Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.
There are eight states (California, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, and Washington) that are considered high potential for effective outreach and development, as determined by a predictive model that incorporates the number of woodland owners, number of Hispanic forestry producers, and the percent of Hispanic population in a county, as well as the historical background associated with those states

Phase Two of the study will focus on these eight states for culturally appropriate outreach, gathering information on barriers to wealth creation and sustainable forestry implementation.

The study was conducted as a partnership between the Endowment, Region 8 of the USDA Forest Service and mano-Y-ola, a Hispanic and woman co-owned consulting firm specializing in research, data analysis, and education and training services.

“Strong partnerships like this help us work together to further understand forest land ownership across the nation,” said Alicia Cramer, Endowment Senior Vice President. “This is vital information as we try to determine how to best support the needs of these landowners.”

“We are happy to have a part in this work because the Forest Service supports landowners to keep forests healthy, diverse and productive for generations to come,” said Southern Regional Forester Ken Arney. “Land is culturally significant to many individuals. This multi-phase project will help improve rural development practices and partnerships with Hispanic forest landowners.”

A copy of the full report can be found here.

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Media Contact
Brandon Walters, Communications and Administrative Coordinator, brandon@usendowment.org; (864) 233-7646.

About the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities is a not-for-profit public charity working collaboratively with partners in the public and private sectors to advance systemic, transformative, and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests and forest-reliant communities. To learn more about the Endowment, please visit our website at www.usendowment.org.