Reservation Prices and Willingness to Accept Price Offers for Nonindustrial Forest Landowners in Western Virginia

The purpose of this thesis is to examine what motivates nonindustrial private forest landowners to accept bids of various levels for harvesting. Through the use of a survey we specifically consider what preferences and landowner characteristics effect these decisions. Landowners were randomly selected from counties in Southwest Virginia. The participants were presented a payment table in which they were asked to indicate the level of certainty with which they would accept bids of various levels for their timber. The information obtained for the survey was used in a LOGIT model to examine which variables were most important both in determining the certainty respondents attached to different bid levels, and the likelihood of accepting a bid of any size. Our most important results show that factors such as bequest motives, tract size, absentee status, and environmental preferences influence the bid acceptance decision for landowners in the sample.