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Harvard Forest REU Symposium Abstract 2012

• Title: Assessing Landowner Conservation Awareness Along Urban-to-Rural Gradients in Massachusetts
• Author: Emma L Schnur (Cornell University)
• Abstract:

  Massachusetts is both the eighth most forested state and the third most densely populated state in the United States. These somewhat conflicting characteristics are due to the heavy clustering of people in and around Boston coupled with the relative lack of population density as one travels west of the city. Though the changes in the physical characteristics of the land are clear along an urban-to-rural gradient away from Boston, what is less clear is how people along the gradient perceive conservation and management for this land. This project examines how landowner conservation awareness varies along two urban-to-rural transects in Massachusetts, the northern transect extending from Boston to Petersham and the southern transect from Boston through Worcester to Palmer. Analyses are based on results from the Conservation Awareness Index (CAI) survey instrument. Administered to over 1,000 randomly selected forest landowners in 21 towns along the transects, the survey questions respondents about their experience with and knowledge of land management practices such as conservation restrictions, timber harvesting, and estate planning. Upon their return, surveys are then scored on a scale of 0 to 64. A GIS analysis reveals that there is no apparent pattern of increasing or decreasing conservation awareness among towns as one travels west along the transects away from Boston. Further, investigating other urban indicators such as percent impervious surface area and percent forested land of respondents’ surrounding property shows that there is little correlation between these indicators and conservation awareness. Though there is not a direct urban-to-rural trend in conservation awareness among towns, analysis reveals that social capital at the town level does matter in terms of influencing conservation awareness. Social capital refers to the collective benefits derived from the cooperation and communication of individuals and groups through social networks. As it pertains to conservation, social capital includes factors such as how active a town’s conservation commission is, the presence of a land trust in that town, and others. This “Conservation Social Capital” has a very strong positive correlation with average conservation awareness of respondents in each town. Overall, social factors seem to play a larger role than physical indicators of “urban-ness” in affecting forest landowner conservation awareness.

• Research Category: Conservation and Management