Personal Values and Perceptions as Indicators of Private Land Management Practices

1
Personal Values and Perceptions as Indicators
of Private Land
Management Practices
Stephanie E. Merrill, MScF Candidate, University
of New Brunswick
Introduction to Research
Implications of Research
Research Design

• Research Problem
• Riparian areas have provided humans with
  essential amenities and have become attractors
  for seasonal homes, water-based recreation and
  tourism.8
• They are largely privately
  
  owned thus individual land
  
  management practices
  
  
  potentially have disproportionate
  
  influence on quality of water.1
• There exists a disconnect between
  
  known BMPs for the benefit of both
  
  people and nature and how
  
  practices play out on private land.
• Given this, it is necessary to
  
  understand the barriers to the
  
  adoption of sustainable land
  
  management behaviours.
• Sustainable management cannot exist in the
  absence of a strong understanding of the
  relationships between biophysical and
  socioeconomic conditions.
• Research Objectives
• Determine relationship between landowners values
  and perceptions of the local environment and
  their land management behaviours
• Determine whether and how variations in
  sociodemographic and property attribute variables
  influence values and perceptions -- behaviour
  relationship

• Policy, Planning and Management
• Watersheds are becoming popular unit of analysis
  for research, planning and management, providing
  a geographical boundary in which most activities
  are interrelated and can be traced to the
  watercourse to which it drains
• Gain a holistic understanding of the structure
  and function of the watershed the
  interconnectedness between biophysical condition
  and social circumstances
• Study will provide increased
  
  understanding of motivations
  
  behind land management
  practices
  in the
  CW watershed
• Lead to better informed policy
  
  development, based upon
  
  landowners actually affected by
  
  planning legislation
• Contribute to Integrated Planning
  
  Pilot project partnership between
  
  CWWA, DOE, RDPC, DFO, and
  Village of Cambridge-Narrows agencies
  
  responsible for policy and management in
  the CW watershed
• Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM)
• Canaan-Washademoak Watershed Association (CWWA)
  to focus on community outreach and education
  program to promote land stewardship
• Need research into target audiences in order
  develop more effective communication tools6
• This study will contribute to CBSM process by
  identifying barriers to maintaining riparian zone
  vegetation on private property

Conceptual Framework The cognitive hierarchy
model of behaviour is used as the foundation for
this research behaviours are born out of values
and attitudes. A proposed conceptual framework
(Fig. 2) was developed after reviewing the
literature regarding valuesbehaviour
relationship of private land management.
Figure 3. Proposed conceptual framework to test
influencers of private land management behaviours

• Hypotheses
• Landowners with values oriented toward protecting
  the local landscape will be more likely to
  maintain riparian zone vegetation
• Landowners with perceptions of good environmental
  quality, high threat and high personal efficacy
  will be more likely to maintain riparian zone
  vegetation
• Younger, higher educated, liberally oriented,
  more affluent, female landowners, with
  occupations not relying on resource-extraction
  industries, who are newcomers, in-migrating from
  urban areas are more likely to maintain riparian
  zone vegetation
• Landowners with larger, primarily residential
  parcels will be more likely to maintain riparian
  zone vegetation

Acknowledgements Supervisory Committee Dr. Shawn
Dalton (UNB ESDRC), Dr. Donald Baird (UNB CRI),
Dr. Tom Beckley (UNB FOREM) Research Funders
Canadian Model Forest Network, Environment
Canada, Canaan-Washademoak Watershed
Association References 1Dalton, S.E., W.R.
McLean, J. Bornemann 2006. Atlas of
Social-Ecological Resources in the
Canaan-Washademoak Watershed. In preparation.
2Dillman, D. A 2000. Mail and Internet Surveys
the tailored design method. John Wiley Sons
Inc. Toronto, ON. 464 pgs. 3Dutcher D. 2000.
Landowner perceptions of Protecting and
Establishing Riparian Forests in Central
Pennsylvania. PhD Dissertation, Pennsylvania
State University, PA. 218 pgs. 4Jenkins, R.L.
2003. Evaluation of the Canaan-Washademoak
ecosystem toward conservation and sustainable
management through water quality monitoring and
riparian zone assessment. Canaan-Washademoak
Watershed Association, NB. 92 pgs.
5McKenzie-Mohr, D. Smith D. 1999. Promoting
Sustainable Behaviour introduction to community
based social marketing. New Society Publishers.
Gabriola Island, British Columbia. 176 pgs.
6Rickard, R. 2001. Water Quality of the Canaan
River and its Relationship to the Water Quality
of Washademoak Lake. Washademoak
Environmentalists. 67 pgs. 7Schrader, C.C.
1994. Stream land Protection in Agricultural
Landscapes landowner perceptions of conservation
approaches. PhD Dissertation, University of
Michigan, MI. 180 pgs. 8Simcox, D.E. 1988.
Public Values in Urban Riparian Land use. PhD
Dissertation, University of Arizona, AZ. 226 pgs.

• Study Site Canaan-Washademoak Watershed
• Southeastern NB (Fig. 1)
• 2160km2 137km long6
• 73-86 forested, 3.2 agriculture,
  2 water
• Population of 3200 6X in summer
• 89 of total parcels 92 of riparian
  adjacent parcels privately owned
• Transition to large forestry and
  agriculture operations
• Influx of older, retired, public servants,
  new seasonal permanent
  residents1
• Water quality adequate for aquatic life4
• 7.2 of lake shoreline vegetation has been
  removed4

• Research Methods
• 800 surveys mailed in summer 06 to a random
  sample of landowners
• Includes 5 steps to maximize responses2
  introduction letter, survey, reminder postcard,
  replacement survey, thank-you/reminder call
• Survey respondents will be tracked in order to
  account for biases
• Analysis include general statistics (percents
  distribution, etc), 1-ANOVA to test relationships
  between values/perceptions--behaviours, multiple
  regression to test combined influences of
  multiple independent variables (ex.sociodemographi
  cs)

Figure 1. Land ownership patterns in the CW
watershed. Greenpublic land, orangeprivate land