An experiential forest and wildlife management training
program,. based on the adoption-diffusion model, was conducted for 49
nonindustrial private forestland (NIPF) owners. Participant-owners were
surveyed 6 months after their training to monitor adoption and diffusion
activity. Owners who were nominated by local natural resources
professionals adopted significantly more management innovations than those
owners not nominated. Farmers demonstrated the most adoption and
diffusion activity, businesspeople the least. Farmers and businesspeople
were more oriented towards timber production objectives than others,
professionals were more oriented towards wildlife management objectives.
An a priori developed predictive opinion-leadership model was not
correlated with either adoption or diffusion activity. Owners living less
than 8 km from their tract spent significantly more time in dissemination
efforts than others, as did those who had voluntarily stated an intrinsic
motivation to "share what they learned" upon application to the project.
Those owners who had gained extensive knowledge from past contact with
natural resource professionals were significantly more active in adoption-diffusion
activity than others, and those with self-perceived high
interpersonal skills engaged significantly more peer owners in diffusion
efforts than did others. Size of forest ownership, time residing in a
community, primary objectives for owning forestland, and number of local
leadership positions held had no significant effect upon adoptiondiffusion
activity by NIPF owners. A significant and negative correlation
was found between an owner's self-perceived level of education and one-onone
diffusion outreach activity. NIPF owners were generally ambivalent
about involvement in informal resource management clubs. It is suggested
that future educational projects conducted for NIPF owners be scheduled
for late winter or spring versus the fall season, particularly if a short
(6 mo.) monitoring of adoption and diffusion activity is a constraint.
This investigator hypothesizes that the same methodology used in this
study of adoption-diffusion behavior of NIPF owners would be effective in
instructing opinion-leading, professional change agents about adoption diffusion
theory and techniques.
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