Midwest Logging Firm Perspectives: Harvesting on Increasingly Parcelized Forestlands

Table 1

Rotated component matrix with factor loadings for Logging Industry Outlook Attitude Scale.^a Bold indicates factor loadings over 0.40, contributing most to latent theme of the subscale.

Verbatim survey items^b,c	Factor 1	Factor 2	Factor 3	Factor 4
	Challenging business environment	Increasing sprawl and development	Changing nature of business	More regulation, low-impact logging
Loggers will have to travel further for good logging chances	0.630	0.312	0.302	−0092
Stumpage prices will increase	0.826	−0.015	0.064	−0.010
We will face greater competition from outside the United States	0.508	0.045	−0.003	0.387
There will be much less logging in my area because of urban sprawl	0.061	0.702	0.199	−0.120
More woodlots will be harvested for residential or commercial development	−0.077	0.748	−0.012	0.100
Logging parcels will be smaller	0.298	0.622	−0.138	0.164
There will be fewer but larger logging contractors	0.063	−0.050	0.842	0.051
There will be more subcontracting, with no employees	0.217	0.271	0.417	−0.162
Logging will be more mechanized	0.094	0.007	0.694	0.384
More “low-impact” logging equipment will be used	−0.017	0.052	0.069	0.837
Logging practices will be more regulated	0.428	0.030	0.265	0.434

^aVariance explained = 56.01%; Cronbach’s alpha = 0.782, 𝑛=613.
^bSurvey question: Please think about what logging will look like in 5 years.
^cScale: 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree.