Since 1920 African Americans have lost 14 million acres of land. This staggering of cultural,social, and economic capital has ramifications for landowners and their communities. Efforts are currently underway to reverse this disconcerting trend, with a special focus on the role of heirs’ property issues in the land loss. The research in this dissertation is intended to aid policymakers and forest professionals in those efforts. It does this through an analysis of African American family forest landowners (FFLOs) using several methodologies at different scales. The first chapter explores African American FFLOs’ personal characteristics, goals,and activities using a survey of African American FFLOs in Georgia. The chapter pays special attention to complex ownership structures like absentee ownership and heirs’ property.The second chapter explores the diverse management outlooks of African American FFLOs using Q Method. The third chapter explores the diverse legacy outlooks of African American FFLOs and compares the similarities and differences between African American and white FFLOs. The fourth chapter explores the possibility of forestland retention through forest income with four case studies of African American FFLOs. In a novel approach, the case studies assess the feasibility of supporting an entire property; not only forest acres.The dissertation illuminates a complex relationship between heirs’ property, forest management, and land retention. In Chapter One, heirs’ property has no significant effect on forest management or forest legacy, but Chapter Four demonstrates the barrier heir’s property represents to land retention through forest income. Chapter Two shows efforts to increase land retention through forest management may overly emphasize forestland retention through forest income, as many landowners have no interest in forest management for income. Chapter Three elaborates on the issue by identifying the paradox that the forest landowners with the most interest in forest income are least likely to consider land retention an important goal and vice versa. This seems to contradict Chapter One, where legacy intentions had a significant effect on forest management until one considers Chapter Four, which highlights the ways landowners can generate income to maintain their property even with limited forest management. Overall, the relationship between heirs’ property, forest management and land retention is straightforward in many cases, while in others it is made complex by the degree of family organization and the diverse objectives of African American FFLOs.