Abstract
Since 2005, the benchmark required by the Census of Agriculture and Forestry for forest management entities is that the entity has a Forest Management Plan (FMP) for the census survey year. Using individual data from the 2005, 2010, and 2015 censuses, we calculated the percentage of forestry management entities who conducted forestry practices based on whether they had an effective FMP. The percentage with a FMP decreased from 45.2% in 2010 to 33.1% in 2015. The percentage of entities who had a FMP and conducted some forestry practices during the previous 5 years decreased from 24.6% in 2010 to 17.9% in 2015. Among the approximately 250,000 entities who were surveyed at least once in the three census surveys (2005, 2010, and 2015), only 7.2% had a FMP, indicating that FMPs are not updated every 5 years. Of the forest management entities, 15.3% had a FMP but had not conducted any forestry practices during the previous 5 years, varying from 0 to 64.9% among forest planning areas. It should be noted that the forestry management entities identified in census surveys since 2005 included some that had a FMP but had not conducted any forestry practices during the previous 5 years.
