GEORGIA — A peer-reviewed University of Georgia study has found that rural forest landowners in the southeastern United States do not assess wood-based bioenergy or climate change solely through economic considerations. Their views are shaped by political beliefs, cultural values, personal experience, trust in markets and perceptions of local communities, the researchers reported in 2025. The study, published in the journal Energy Research & Social Science, examined how forest landowners and other stakeholders connect — or do not connect — climate change with the development of energy produced from woody biomass. The findings are significant because landowners’ willingness to supply forest materials is important to the operation and expansion of bioenergy facilities. “Neither bioenergy nor climate change is an isolated issue, but rather they are embedded within a matrix of cultural values, political ideologies, and personal lived experiences,” the researchers wrote.