Abstract
The discrepancy between the amount of privately owned forestland and the amount of well-managed privately owned forestland has been attributed to a variety of factors including the time, money, and knowledge required to manage private forestland and the degree to which forest management services offered by natural resource professionals reflect private forest landowner (PFL) interests. These views assume the value of forest management is, or can be, mutually understood but may have ignored mutual understanding of the concept itself. This Tennessee survey compares how PFLs conceptualize forest management with traditional definitions and finds most landowners surveyed believe they manage their forestland. Relationships were identified between how forest management is conceptualized, whether PFLs believe they manage their forestland (or not), and forest management behavior. Results suggest incorporating landowner forest management conceptualizations and beliefs may more effectively engage PFLs in forest management than focusing on the value of forest management alone.