Public and private programs of technical 
forestry assistance to private timberland 
owners, along with other educational and 
cost-sharing efforts, have been efficient— 
the benefits exceed the cost—and effective 
in improving forest management and 
increasing the income of timber owners. 
A study of the Southwide effects of professional foresters 
on pine regeneration revealed that owners made regenera- 
tion investments on 63 percent of their acres when they had 
consulted a forester (Royer and Kaiser 1985). Regeneration 
investments were made on only 12 percent of the acres, if 
foresters were not involved. 
In another study Royer (1987) looked at the effects of mar- 
kets and public programs on reforestation decisions by 
landowners. He found that 60 percent of the variation in 
decisions could be explained by program influences, particu- 
larly cost-share funds and technical assistance; 16 percent 
could be explained by ownership and personal characteris- 
tics; another 13 percent could be explained by market forces; 
and factors influencing the remaining 11 percent could not 
be explained. 
A study of the Forestry Incentives Program showed that in- 
vestments in tree planting and stand improvement in 1974 
had an average annual financial return of 10.2 percent (Mills 
and Cain 1979). However, many small tracts that were 
treated were unlikely to yield satisfactory returns; and re- 
turns from timber stand improvement in oak—hickory stand 
types were typically low. A later analysis of the 1979 pro- 
gram found that the average size of treated areas had in- 
creased considerably, and practices on lower site-quality 
lands had been curtailed (Risbrudt and Ellefson 1983). Re- 
searchers concluded that the 1979 program would result in 
an additional 1.3 billion cubic feet of timber over the first 
rotation compared to the timber that would have been pro- 
duced without the program. Ninety-three percent of the ad- 
ditional volume was in softwoods. 
In summation, it seems clear that technical and financial 
assistance, whether public or private, has been an effective 
and increasingly important influence on the regeneration and 
management of timberlands in other private ownerships in 
the South. 
