The Prime Prospect Analysis is an additional tool to help you identify woodland owners who are most likely to adopt stewardship behaviors.

Prime Prospects are landowners who have a stewardship mindset but are not engaged in managing their woods (e.g., they don't have management plans, they don't consult foresters, and they don't participate in programs such as cost-shares and easements). Understanding what proportion of landowners in your region falls into this category will help you see how many people you can expect to influence. Then you can look at what SFFI segments they fall into to develop ideas about how to influence them.

According to NWOS data, 66% of landowners nationwide are Prime Prospects. The rest are Model Owners (7%), Opportunists (12%) and Write-Offs (14%).

Model Owners have a stewardship mindset and are already taking many of the actions that natural resource professionals recommend.

Opportunists are doing some management activities but not really out of a stewardship orientation--they may find these actions to be financially beneficial or otherwise convenient.

Write-Offs are people who are not managing their land sustainably and don't demonstrate a stewardship mindset toward their land.

In most cases, your outreach is likely to have the greatest impact on Prime Prospects. However, you might want to target the other groups for specific actions. For example, you might want to persuade Model Owners to become more active in their communities and help you reach other landowners. You might want to work with Opportunists to "lock in" some of the good decisions they have made and highlight the financial benefits of additional practices. Write-Offs generally don't seek information on stewardship and forest management but they may be receptive to information on specific topics such as land transfer.

State landowner profiles have information about what proportion of landowners in your state are Prime Prospects, Model Owners, Opportunists, and Write-Offs. These profiles also tell you how your Prime Prospects break out in terms of the SFFI segments: are they most likely to be Woodland Retreat, Working the Land, Supplemental Income or Uninvolved landowners?

You can use both of these lenses to take a closer look at landowners in your state or region and choose a viable target audience for your communication.