How Family Forest Owners Consider Timber Harvesting, Land Sale, and Conservation Easement Decisions: Insights from Massachusetts, USA

Table 1

Description and summary of survey items measuring professed attitudes towards forestland along with principal component analysis summary statistics.

Professed attitudes towards forestland survey items*	Mean (Std. Dev.)	Rotated principal component loading	Cronbach’s Alpha
		PC 1: GREEN
I would be pleased if a rare or threatened species was found on my land.	3.32 (1.33)	0.71	0.80
What I do on my land affects others.	3.73 (1.05)	0.75
My land provides benefits for society.	3.83 (0.94)	0.74
My land should provide for the needs of future plant and animal populations.	4.03 (0.89)	0.84
I have a responsibility to leave my land in at least as good a condition as I found it.	4.31 (0.76)	0.74
Land must provide a return to cover the expenses associated with ownership.	2.97 (1.18)	−0.32	Retained as unique variable
Eigenvalue		2.98
Variance explained		0.50

*Item scale: 1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree.