Digital Commons Network^™

Fish Disease Outreach Messages: Testing Of Gain And Loss Frames, Erin L. Pavloski, Heather A. Triezenberg

The Journal of Extension

Gain and loss framing has been used as a technique in risk communication to shape individuals’ behaviors in many fields. Our community-engaged research, conducted in partnership with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), experimentally tested five message frames to determine efficacy for outreach programs. We found: a) to increase risk perceptions of fish disease use a loss frame in a management context, b) to decrease risk perceptions of fish disease management use a gain frame in a disease context, and c) to motivate behavioral intentions for prevention and risk reduction use a gain frame in a disease context.

Outreach In Archaeology With Agent-Based Modeling: Part 3 Of 3, Stefani Crabtree, Kathryn Harris, Benjamin Davies, Iza Romanowska

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

A major challenge facing archaeologists is communicating our research to the public. Thankfully, new computational tools have enabled the testing and visualization of complex ideas in an easily packageable format. In this article we illustrate not only how agent-based modeling provides a platform for communicating complex ideas, but also how these game-like computer models can be explored and manipulated by members of the public therefore increasing their engagement in archaeological explanations. We suggest that these new digital tools serve as an excellent aid for education on the importance of archaeological sites and artifacts. To illustrate the above we walk the …

Comparative Optimism: Relative Risk Perception And Behavioral Response To Lead Exposure, Bernabas Wolde, Pankaj Lal, Melissa Harclerode, Alessandra Rossi

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Despite their true exposure, individuals with Comparative Optimism consider themselves less prone to the adverse health effects of pollution. Since individuals’ response to a given environmental risk is affected by their appraisal of the risk, those with Comparative Optimism may be less likely to engage in prescribed behaviors or to do so at the urgency required of the given risk. Such limited or delayed response can amplify the risk instead of reducing it. Thus, there is a need to understand if Comparative Optimism applies to pollutants with irreversible adverse health effects as it would impose a higher burden. There is …

Now I See: Photovisualization To Support Agricultural Climate Adaptation, Rachel E. Schattman, Stephanie Hurley, Martha Caswell

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. To remain viable, agricultural producers will need to adapt to changing climatic conditions in coming decades. Agricultural advisers play an important role in helping producers decide to adopt appropriate adaptation practices. Photovisualizations have the potential to complement currently utilized outreach and education strategies. This research uses a focus group approach to explore (1) whether photovisualizations can aid in decision-making about climate change adaptation, and (2) what characteristics of photovisualizations are most effective at conveying spatial aspects of adaptation practices. We found that photovisualizations generate rich discussions about ecological and economic effects …

A Pilot Qualitative Case Study Of Agricultural And Natural Resources Scientists’ Twitter Usage For Engaging Public Audiences, Jaime Loizzo, Catherine Jones, Abby Steffen

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Scientists are frequently asked to broadly share their expertise and research with a variety of audiences, beyond typical academic circles in their home disciplines. That could include developing community engagement programs, school outreach, leveraging online social networks, and other activities. The purpose of this study was to examine U.S. agricultural and natural resources (ANR) scientists’ typical science communication channels, their experiences utilizing Twitter for sharing their knowledge, research, and engaging in online public science discussion. Diffusion of Innovations theory and the model of science in-reach versus outreach guided this study. Researchers used a qualitative case study design. Data collection included …

Municipal Drinking Water Quality: Environmental Health And Safety Perceptions In Phoenix, Arizona, Chelsey Weaver

Capstone Experience

The goals of the Service Learning/Capstone Experience (SL/CE) project included identifying current perceptions regarding lead in municipal drinking water and related environmental health and safety concerns in the Sunnyslope community of Phoenix, Arizona; evaluating and improving the current outreach program in order to effectively target drinking water perceptions; and identifying strengths and weaknesses in the City of Phoenix Water Services Department (WSD) and Environmental Services Division (ESD) that contribute to negative public perceptions of municipally supplied drinking water. Objectives used to meet the stated goals included developing and distributing a survey to measure perceptions of the above issues through a …

Experiential Education And Outreach Based On Nearshore Monitoring Of The Elwha River Restoration Project, Andrea S. Ogston, Ian M. Miller, Chloe Dawson, Emily F. Eidam, Nancy Elder, Hannah E. Glover, Steve P. Rubin, Melissa Williams

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Nearshore monitoring of benthic habitats and the coastal environment following the Elwha River Restoration project has engaged students and citizens with coastal science and management issues. In the post-dam-removal period, the lessons learned will continue to be disseminated via a UW undergraduate course and an interactive digital map, both designed to engage students and communities in restoration science. The research-focused course developed at the UW Friday Harbor Labs has allowed us to engage diverse undergraduate students (and graduate teaching assistants) in the research process. The course integrates interdisciplinary lectures and workshops on data analysis and laboratory methods, with the research …

Understanding Shoreline Landowner Views On Water Quality Best Management Practices And Outreach, Robert C. Simmons, Darcy Mcnamara, Heidi Keller

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Place-based research targeting rural shoreline property owners provided valuable insights into water quality issue awareness, viewpoints, and willingness to adopt best management practices (BMPs). This information can improve the efficacy of outreach programs designed to motivate shoreline homeowners to protect adjacent waterways. Between 2009 and 2016, 7 different sets of audience research were conducted to determine how to increase the voluntary adoption of water quality BMPs on private land. The studies focused on shoreline landowners and were conducted in rural areas in the South Puget Sound and Hood Canal regions of Washington State. Barriers and motivators for a variety of …

Public Outreach: Growing And Adapting With Changing Times, Meagan Harris, Kate Kimber, Erika Douglas, Aneka Sweeney

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Drayton Harbor’s 2016 reopening of 810 acres of commercial, tribal, and recreational shellfish harvesting area marked a significant achievement in the efforts to improve water quality and allow year-round harvest of the productive shellfish growing area. Public outreach over the past 20 years played a critical role in engaging the local community and encouraging on-the-ground actions to reduce pollution throughout the watershed. Bacteria pollution is a complex issue requiring diverse solutions; no single fix exists. In the Drayton Harbor watershed, a variety of organizations, agencies, and community members participated in developing and carrying out a robust and diverse outreach strategy …

Listening To Farmers: The Farming In The Floodplain Project, Spencer Easton

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

The Farming in the Floodplain Project (FFP) is an effort to engage farmers in the Clear Creek area, just east of Tacoma, in the planning and design of a multiple-benefit floodplain reconnection project. The foundation of the FFP is to understand and document technical information on the needs of the agricultural community in the area so that those needs can be incorporated into the project. Environmental Science Associates (ESA) conducted technical work on the FFP on behalf of PCC Farmland Trust. Over the course of the FFP, we learned to let the viewpoints of farmers guide how we conducted our …

Shoreline Armor Removal: Challenges And Solutions To Working With Private Property Owners, Lisa Kaufman

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference

Shoreline armoring is a pressure on the nearshore ecosystem altering a variety of sediment and biological processes which in turn alter the structure and function of the nearshore ecosystem. It is also a subject that elicits an emotional response from landowners concerned about the stability of their shoreline property in the face of sea level rise and increasing storm surge. The Northwest Straits Foundation and its partners have been engaging with shoreline landowners to encourage behavior change through education, outreach, and incentives that remove or reduce the barriers for consideration of alternatives to hard armor. This presentation will highlight the …

Black Bears Recolonizing Historic Ranges: Indiana Human–Bear Interactions, Bradford J. Westrich, Emily B. Mccallen, Geriann Albers

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Over a century after extirpation from Indiana, USA, 2 American black bears (Ursus americanus) were confirmed in the state during the summers of 2015 and 2016. The first bear encountered a public and management agency unaccustomed to living with large carnivores, which resulted in intentional and unintentional feedings, habituation, and ultimately its euthanasia. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) attempted to learn from this encounter and began preparing for the next transient black bear. Education materials were created to help minimize human–bear interactions, promote living safely with bears, and inform about what to do when encountering a …

Slides: The Blm And Colorado Dnr Mou: A Water-Based Partnership, Roy Smith

Innovations in Managing Western Water: New Approaches for Balancing Environmental, Social and Economic Outcomes (Martz Summer Conference, June 11-12)

Presenter: Roy Smith, Bureau of Land Management

19 slides

Fine-Scale Plant Species Identification In A Poor Fen And Integration Of Techniques And Instrumentation In A Classroom Setting, Dylan Schiff

Honors Theses and Capstones

Refining carbon flux measurements in the carbon cycle is an ongoing challenge. This study attempted to identify plant species in Sallie’s Fen, a nutrient-poor fen in Barrington, New Hampshire, at a fine scale in order to better model and understand carbon exchange between plants and the atmosphere in this type of ecosystem. A protocol for estimating percent cover of species in plots via ground measurements was developed. The next stage of this project was to compare these measurements with measurements derived from spectral images using ImageJ computer software. Statistical tests of the ground measurement data revealed that patterns of seasonal …

Development Of Climate Change Information Database And Its Use In Civic Consciousness Enlightenment, Motohiro Honma, Yuri Michihiro, Yasushi Suzuki, Yoshinobu Sato

International Conference on Hydroinformatics

GCM outputs such as CMIP3 are available via network access to PCMDI web site. Meteorological researchers are familiar with the usage of the GCM data, but the most of researchers other than meteorology such as agriculture, civil engineering, etc., and general people are not familiar with the GCM. There are some difficulties to use GCM; 1) to download the enormous quantity of data, 2) to understand the GCM methodology, parameters and grids. In order to provide a quick access way to GCM, Climate Change Information Database has been developed. The purpose of the database is to bridge the users and …

Extension Sustainability: Research, Outreach, And Communication Techniques To Foster Positive Change, Roslynn Brain

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Slides: Bmps For Reclamation: Do We Know What Is Effective?, Peter Stahl

Best Management Practices (BMPs): What? How? And Why? (May 26)

Presenter: Pete Stahl, Wyoming Reclamation and Restoration Center

19 slides

Slides: Environmentally Friendly Drilling Systems Program (Efd), Rich Haut

Best Practices for Community and Environmental Protection (October 14)

Presenter: Rich Haut, Houston Advanced Research Center

23 slides

Slides: Economic Incentives For Demand Reduction, Christopher Goemans

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: Christopher Goemans, Department of Agriculture & Resource Economics, Colorado State University

17 slides

Slides: Water Footprints: Consciousness Raising Meets Risk Management, Steve Malloch

Western Water Law, Policy and Management: Ripples, Currents, and New Channels for Inquiry (Martz Summer Conference, June 3-5)

Presenter: Steve Malloch, Senior Western Water Program Manager, National Wildlife Federation, Seattle, WA

38 slides

Promoting Awareness, Knowledge And Good Intentions, Christy Martin

Managing Vertebrate Invasive Species

Two independent studies in the 1990s found that Hawaii had the nation’s worst alien pest problem due to gaps in prevention, detection and control programs, which could be addressed through increased communication, cooperation, and public outreach. The Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species (CGAPS), a government/non-government partnership, formed in 1995 to address these gaps and work on public awareness. Using snakes as an example, a 1996 Hawaii statewide public awareness survey found that 66% of people “had heard of brown treesnakes.” CGAPS ran the “Silent Invasion” campaign in 1997, with “shock footage” television commercials and specials about brown treesnakes on …

An Extension Program Helping Private Landowners Develop Natural Resource Enterprises In Mississippi, A. T. Rohnke, W. D. Jones, K. M. Jacobs, T. A. Tullos

11th Triennial National Wildlife and Fisheries Extension Specialists Conference (2006)

The Natural Resources Enterprise (NRE) Program at Mississippi State University has developed a comprehensive statewide extension effort to assist landowners in developing and managing outdoor recreational businesses using sound business and habitat management strategies. According to recent research, fee access wildlife and fisheries recreational enterprises on private lands diversify landowner income, enhance participation in USDA cost-share programs that increase wildlife habitats on marginal agricultural lands, and promote land stewardship and ownership retention. With this program, information pertinent to the development and management of natural resource enterprises is disseminated through a combination of landowner workshops, websites, extension publications, manuals, DVD tutorials, …

Conference Summary: Water, Climate And Uncertainty: Implications For Western Water Law, Policy, And Management, Steve Bailey

Water, Climate and Uncertainty: Implications for Western Water Law, Policy, and Management (Summer Conference, June 11-13)

7 pages.

"Steve Bailey, National Center for Atmospheric Research"

Slides: Balancing Drought And Flood In The Pacific Northwest: The Challenge Of Climate Change, Doug Mcchesney

Water, Climate and Uncertainty: Implications for Western Water Law, Policy, and Management (Summer Conference, June 11-13)

1 page "Abstract" and 36 slides

"Doug McChesney, Manager, Policy and Planning Section, Washington Department of Ecology"

Watershed Based Efforts: The Applegate Partnership Of Southwest Oregon, Jack Shipley

Challenging Federal Ownership and Management: Public Lands and Public Benefits (October 11-13)

15 pages.