Women Forest Owners in Pennsylvania

The year 2026 has been declared the International Year of the Women Farmer by the United Nations to recognize the important role of women in agricultural fields across the world (FAO, 2026). Nationally, women farmers operate over 1,000,000 farms (US Census Bureau, Table 57) and are responsible for an estimated 31% of the nation's private forestlands. (McGarvey, 2021). The number of female forest owners has increased, up from about 11% in 2006, largely due to inheriting land, putting them in a position to be the primary decision-makers for the first time (McGarvey, 2021). Private forest owners in Pennsylvania manage 11.5 million acres of woodlands or nearly 70%  of the state's forests (Muth, n.d). It is estimated that 24% of this land is managed with women as the primary decision makers. Despite women controlling 24% of forest land, "a 2018 study found that women are significantly less likely to manage wildlife, have a commercial timber harvest, or have undertaken management activities in the past five years when they are the primary decision maker" (McGarvey, 2021)(Butler et al., 2018). Women forest owners are more likely to own smaller properties in PA. For example, women were the primary decision-makers on 33% of properties with 10 acres or less, while 84% of decision-makers on properties of 50 acres or more were men (Muth, 2024). Women landowners tend to have smaller parcels, generate lower income from their properties, and are less likely to attend educational events or be aware of assistance opportunities, placing them at higher personal economic risk, resulting in poor management and a higher likelihood of sale and conversion to non-forest use.

Women landowners are underrepresented in forest leadership spaces, which can pose a barrier for women who might feel unwelcome in these environments. This makes them less likely to ask questions and to rely on informal sources (Huff, 2017). Additionally, many women may not be aware of the resources available to help get them started. Major barriers to their involvement include a sense of not being welcome in established forest landowner spaces, such as woodland owner groups, and a perception that they lack basic ecological knowledge or even the vocabulary to engage professionals.  Research has shown that women have different management priorities than men, meaning that certain resources and programming may be less relevant to them. On average, women tend to focus on goals related to environmental protection, wildlife conservation, planning, and aesthetic values (Mohai, 1992; Redmore, 2009; Schelhas et al., 2012; Mook et al., 2022; Miner et al., 2021; Lukacic et al., 2023; Balasubramanian & Dwivedi, 2024). Helping connect women landowners with resources that align with their management goals is essential to helping women manage their forests. Women also face the primary responsibility for childcare and household chores, limiting access to extension events, or peer network opportunities. 

Women landowners play an important role in maintaining and managing the health of Pennsylvania's forests into the future. Making it important to equip women to manage their woodlands, meaning we must reduce barriers to accessing essential information. The collection of extension resources below aims to address information barriers and provide articles that serve as a starting place for women landowners to enhance management practices, build communities, think about legacy planning, and increase financial literacy. 

Resources for Women Forest Owners

Get Connected with other Women Forest Owners: Women Owning Woodlands Network

• Keep Penn's Woods Healthy: a tool to assess risk and resilience in changing forests 
• Forestry with Confidence: A Guide for Woodland Owners
• Service Forester Assistance for Forest Landowners
• Herbicides and Forest Vegetation Management
• Forest Stewardship: Terminology
• Forest Stewardship: Sources of Information and Guidance for Forest Stewards
• Forest Stewardship: Teaching Youth About Forest Stewardship
• It's Your Legacy
• Legacy Planning Stories
• Their Land, Their Legacy
• Inspiring Future Forest Stewards
• Why Do Unplanned or Poorly Planned Timber Harvests Occur?
• How Forests Store Carbon
• Women in Forest Leadership: Addressing Climate Change in Forest Management 
• A Green Solution to Stormwater Management 

Sources 

Balasubramanian, K., & Dwivedi, P. (2024). Using mental model approach for ascertaining socio-cultural perceptions of forest-based ecosystem services among female forest landowner in Georgia, United States. Forests, Trees and Livelihoods, 1-23.

Butler S.,  Emily S Huff, Stephanie A Snyder, Brett J Butler, Mary Tyrrell, The Role of Gender in Management Behaviors on Family Forest Lands in the United States, Journal of Forestry, Volume 116, Issue 1, January 2018, Pages 32–40, Doi.org/10.5849/jof.2016-076R2

FAO. (2026). Home: International year of the woman farmer (IYWF) 2026: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. IYWF.

Huff, E. S. (2017). A national perspective on women owning woodlands (WOW) networks. The Journal of Extension, 55(2), 8.

Lukacic, O., Catanzaro, P., Huff, E. S., & Hamunen, K. (2023). Women on the land: perspectives on women-owned forest land in the Eastern United States. Society & Natural Resources, 36(3), 288-305.

McGarvey, J. (2021, April 1). Women in forestry. Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. 

Miner, J., Dwivedi, P., Izlar, R., Atkins, D., & Kadam, P. (2021). Perspectives of four stakeholder groups about the participation of female forest landowner in forest management in Georgia, United States. Plos one, 16(8), e0256654.

Mohai, P. (1992). Men, women, and the environment: An examination of the gender gap in environmental concern and activism. In Women Working in the Environment (pp. 215-239). Routledge 

Mook, A., Goyke, N., & Dwivedi, P. (2022). Conservation intentions and place attachment among male and female forest landowners. Rural Sociology, 87(3), 817-846.

Muth, A. (2024, November 7). A look at the 2021 Forest landowner survey results: Who are Pennsylvania's woodland owners? (research). Research (Department of Ecosystem Science and Management).

Muth, A. (n.d.). Legacy Planning (Research). Research (Department of Ecosystem Science and Management). 

Redmore, L. E. (2009). (Re) claiming forestry: A case study of women's empowerment. MS Thesis. Oregon State University.

Schelhas, J., Zhang, Y., Zabawa, R., & Zheng, B. (2012). Exploring family forest landowner diversity: Place, race, and gender in Alabama, United States. International Journal of Social Forestry, 5(1), 1-21.

US Census. (2022). United States Department of Agriculture. USDA.