Notice2026-07102
Information Collection; National Woodland Owner Survey
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
April 13, 2026
Issuing agencies
Agriculture DepartmentForest Service
Abstract
In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Forest Service is seeking comments from all interested individuals and organizations on the extension (with revisions) of a currently approved information collection, National Woodland Owner Survey.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 70 (Monday, April 13, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 70 (Monday, April 13, 2026)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18815-18817]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-07102]
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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Forest Service
Information Collection; National Woodland Owner Survey
AGENCY: Forest Service, Agriculture (USDA).
ACTION: Notice; request for comment.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the
Forest Service is seeking comments from all interested individuals and
organizations on the extension (with revisions) of a currently approved
information collection, National Woodland Owner Survey.
DATES: Comments must be received in writing on or before June 12, 2026
to be assured of consideration. Comments received after that date will
be considered to the extent practicable.
ADDRESSES: Comments concerning this notice should be addressed to Brett
Butler of the USDA Forest Service, 160 Holdsworth Way, Amherst, MA
01003. Comments also may be submitted via facsimile to 608-231-9592 or
by email to: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#6a08180f1e1e44081f1e060f18582a1f190e0b440d051c"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="6c0e1e091818420e191800091e5e2c191f080d420b031a">[email protected]</span></a>.
Comments submitted in response to this notice may be made available
to the public through relevant websites and upon request. For this
reason, please do not include in your comments information of a
confidential nature, such as sensitive personal information or
proprietary information. If you send an email comment, your email
address will be automatically captured and included as part of the
comment that is placed in the public docket and made available on the
internet. Please note that responses to this public comment request
containing any routine notice about the confidentiality of the
communication will be treated as public comments that may be made
available to the public notwithstanding the inclusion of the routine
notice.
The public may inspect the draft supporting statement and/or
comments received at 160 Holdsworth Way, Room 201, Amherst, MA 01003
during normal business hours. Visitors are encouraged to call ahead to
413-545-1387 to facilitate entry to the building. The public may
request an electronic copy of the draft supporting statement and/or any
comments received be sent via return email. Requests should be emailed
to <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#365444534242185443425a534404764345525718515940"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="7d1f0f180909531f080911180f4f3d080e191c531a120b">[email protected]</span></a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brett Butler, Northern Research
Station, 413-545-1387. Individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or
have a speech disability may call 711 to reach the Telecommunications
Relay Service then provide the phone number of the person named as a
point of contact for further information.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Title: National Woodland Owner Survey.
OMB Number: 0596-0078.
Expiration Date of Approval: 05/31/2027.
Type of Request: Extension with Revision of a currently approved
information collection.
Abstract: There are an estimated 704 million acres of forestland
across the United States, excluding interior Alaska. Of this
forestland, over half is owned by millions of corporations, families,
individuals, and other private groups with the remaining managed by
over a thousand different Federal, State, and local government agencies
and Tribal organizations. Understanding the attitudes and behaviors of
the owners and managers of the forestland is critical for understanding
the current and future state of the Nation's forests. The Forest
Service conducts the National Woodland Owner Survey (NWOS) to increase
our understanding of:
<bullet> Who owns and manages the forestland of the United States,
<bullet> Why they own/manage it,
<bullet> How they have used it, and
<bullet> How they intend to use it.
This information is used by policy analysts, foresters, educators,
and researchers to facilitate the planning and implementation of forest
policies and programs and to provide landowners, managers, and the
general public a better understanding of the social context of forests.
The Forest Service's direction and authority to conduct the NWOS is
from the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974
(Pub. L. 93-378; 16 U.S.C. 1600, et seq., as amended), and the Forest
and Rangeland Renewable Resources Research Act of 1978 (Pub. L. 93-378;
16 U.S.C. 1642, et seq., as amended). These acts assign responsibility
for the inventory and assessment of forest and related renewable
resources to the Forest Service. Additionally, the importance of an
ownership survey in this inventory and assessment process is
highlighted in the 2014 Farm Bill, the Agricultural Research,
Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998, and the recommendations of
the Second Blue Ribbon Panel on the Forest Inventory and Analysis
program (FIA).
Previous iterations of the NWOS were conducted in 1978, 1993, 2002-
2006, 2011-2013, 2017-2018, 2019-2023, and the current 2024-2028 cycle.
Approval for the current iteration of the NWOS
[[Page 18816]]
expires on May 31, 2027. In order to complete the current NWOS cycle,
which ends in 2028, we are seeking approval of this renewal. If this
renewal is approved, the NWOS will be permitted to complete the 2024-
2028 cycle.
Information will be collected related to:
<bullet> The characteristics of the land holdings,
<bullet> Attitudes and perceptions of the owners and managers,
<bullet> Resource uses and management activities, and
<bullet> Where applicable, landowner demographics.
Separate survey instruments were developed for different target
populations, including family forest ownerships, corporate and other
private forest ownerships, private forest ownerships on selected U.S.
affiliated protectorates and territories, residential urban landowners,
Tribal lands, and public lands. The proposed information collection
includes survey questions and specialized science modules that address
the high-priority administration subject areas of wildfire, timber, and
recreation, including stand-alone science modules on wildfire and
timber and multiple base survey questions related to each topic. For
the families and individuals, the dominant ownership group of
forestland owners, a subset of ownerships will be sent survey
instruments addressing the following topics, in addition to the core
questions from the base survey instrument:
<bullet> Afforestation
<bullet> Agroforestry
<bullet> Carbon
<bullet> Cross-boundary cooperation
<bullet> Decision making
<bullet> Energy
<bullet> Heirs' properties
<bullet> Invasive species
<bullet> Land transfer
<bullet> Landowner values
<bullet> Sense of place
<bullet> Timber
<bullet> Wellbeing
<bullet> Wildfire
The NWOS provides widely cited benchmarks for the number, extent,
and characteristics of owners of forestland in the United States. These
results have been used to assess the sustainability of forest resources
at national, regional, and state levels; to implement and assess
forest-land owner assistance programs; and to answer a variety of
questions with topics ranging from fragmentation to the economics of
timber production. This is the only consistent, long-term effort to
collect in-depth information about owners of forestland at the national
scale. It provides longitudinal data to track ownership trends and
allows for comparisons across regions of the country.
The respondents will be a statistically selected group of
individuals, families, partnerships, corporations, nonprofit
organizations and other private groups, Tribal groups, and public
landowners that own forestland in the United States. A well
distributed, random set of sampling points has been established across
the country. At each point, remotely sensed data, such as aerial
photographs, will be used to identify forested points. For the forested
points, public records will be used to identify the owners of record
(such as the names and addresses of the landowners who will be
contacted). The target number of respondents for the base NWOS
implementation is 50 per state (or substate) per year, which, given a
historic response rate of 29 percent, means an estimated 2,650
ownership responses annually. Additionally, with science modules, state
intensifications, urban, islands, Tribal, corporate and public
instruments, our estimated number of respondents and non-respondents
(who incur some burden from outreach materials), is 19,447 ownerships
per year and 3,090 burden hours.
The NWOS will utilize a mixed-mode survey technique involving
cognitive interviews, focus groups, self-administered survey, and
telephone interviews. Cognitive interviews will be used to test
specific questions and explore new topics or populations of interest.
Focus groups will be used to provide more in-depth understanding of the
responses and to explore new areas of inquiry.
The implementation of the self-administered survey, which will
represent the majority of the responses, will involve up to four
contacts. First, a pre-notice postcard will be sent to all potential
respondents describing this information collection and why the
information is being collected. Second, a survey with a cover letter
and pre-paid return envelope will be sent to the potential respondents.
The cover letter will reiterate the purpose of this information
collection and provide the respondents with all legally required
information. Third, a reminder will be mailed to thank the respondents
and encourage the non-respondents to reply. Those who have yet to
respond will be sent a new survey, cover letter, and pre-paid return
envelope. Telephone interviews will be used for follow-up with non-
respondents. For all owners, the primary survey instrument will be
paper forms with the option for completing the survey electronically
online. We will use Participatory Action Research (PAR) and cognitive
interviews to explore tribal land ownerships.
Forest Service researchers will coordinate all components of this
information collection. Forest Service personnel with assistance
provided by cooperators at the Family Forest Research Center located at
the University of Massachusetts Amherst will conduct the mail portion
of the survey, cognitive interviews, focus groups, and telephone
follow-ups. Data will be compiled and edited by Forest Service and
Family Forest Research Center personnel. Forest Service researchers and
cooperators will analyze the collected data. National, regional, and
state-level results will be publicly available and electronically
distributed.
This information collection will generate scientifically based,
statistically reliable, up-to-date information about the owners of
forestland in the United States. The results of these efforts will
provide more reliable information on this important and dynamic segment
of the United States population, thus facilitating more complete
assessments of the country's forestland resources and improved planning
and implementation of forestry programs on state, regional, and
national levels.
Affected Public: Individuals and households and the Private Sector
(Businesses and Non-Profit Organizations, and State, Local, or Tribal
Government).
Estimate of Burden per Response: 25 minutes for families,
individuals, and corporate ownerships; 60-120 minutes for Tribal
entities, and 15 minutes for public entities. 1-3 minutes for pre-
notice letters, cover letters, and thank you letters.
Estimated Annual Number of Respondents: 19,447.
Estimated Annual Number of Responses per Respondent: 1.
Estimated Total Annual Burden on Respondents: 3,090 hours.
Comment is Invited: Comment is invited on: (1) whether this
collection of information is necessary for the stated purposes and the
proper performance of the functions of the Agency, including whether
the information will have practical or scientific utility; (2) the
accuracy of the Agency's estimate of the burden of the collection of
information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions
used; (3) ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the
information to be collected; and (4) ways to minimize the
[[Page 18817]]
burden of the collection of information on respondents, including the
use of automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological
collection techniques or other forms of information technology.
All comments received in response to this notice, including names
and addresses when provided, will be a matter of public record.
Comments will be summarized and included in the submission request for
Office of Management and Budget approval.
Valerie Hipkins,
Acting Deputy Chief, Research and Development.
[FR Doc. 2026-07102 Filed 4-10-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3411-15-P
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