Environmental Sciences Commons^™

Community Science And Coyote Stories: Capturing And Communicating Nature's Non-Material Values For Use In Decision-Making, Joshua Wright Morse

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The reasons and ways that nature matters underlie every part of environmental decision-making. Yet, there are disparities in how different kinds of benefits from and values about nature are represented in policy and practice. This dissertation explores how decision-makers and community members value nature broadly and also in the context of a specific human-wildlife interaction in Vermont, United States.

In my first chapter, I conduct semi-structured interviews with environmental sector practitioners in Vermont to learn about their awareness of non-material values from nature. I find that practitioners talk readily about both material and non-material ecosystem services as well as multiple …

Unraveling Public Evacuation Likelihood: Structural Equation Models And The Extended Parallel Process Model In Focus, Molly Margaret Myers

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This study explores the intricate relationships between risk perception, efficacy appraisal, and evacuation likelihood in the context of flooding among the United States public. The Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) developed by Witte (1992) serves as the theoretical framework for this study, emphasizing the two-pronged appraisal process of threat and efficacy, influencing individual responses to risk messaging. Analysis of the data delves into the relationships between risk perception and evacuation likelihood, offering insights into the public's understanding of flood risk and readiness for impending flood events. This study used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to discern the impact of threat and …

Imaginaries Of The Great Outdoors: Comparing Facebook Postings Across Resource Places, Frances Hoag

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Communication across agencies, interested audiences, and the public is central to resource management. While social media expands agencies’ communication options, it also may present opportunities for constructing and presenting “imaginaries” – collectively imagined discourses that that shape understandings of place and influence the world views of followers. Imaginaries are “socially constructed, taken-for-granted meanings about reality that make everyday social and cultural practices seem obvious and sensible to people” (Stokowski et al., 2021). Extending prior research, we sought to understand whether/how resource management agencies used social media to construct and deploy imaginaries. Data were collected during 2021-2022 from resource management agencies …

Multi-Scale Assessment Of Gully Erosion At Road Drainage Outlets, Emma Louise Estabrook

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Gully erosion and sediment deposition from roads are underrated sources of sediments entering receiving waterways. While gully erosion has been studied throughout the world, the monitoring of the temporal and spatial erosional processes related to culverts and road drainage is rare. The objectives of this study are to quantify rates of gully erosion from Vermont’s transportation drainage networks at multiple temporal scales and report on insights gained from a multi-scale approach to monitoring gully erosion. To quantify event to seasonal timescales of gully erosion, high resolution terrestrial LiDAR surveys were conducted at 13 field sites. Field sites were monitored at …

The Feasibility Of Over-Summer Snow Storage At The Craftsbury Outdoor Center, Craftsbury Vt, Hannah Sarah Weiss

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Climate change increases the unpredictability of winter weather and threatens the future of nordic skiing. Ski centers at high elevation and high latitude have employed over-summer snow storage, a climate change adaptation strategy, to ensure a consistent start-date to their winter ski season. Over-summer snow storage involves making a large pile of snow during winter and storing the snow beneath protective layers, such as wood chips or foam panels, to impede melt throughout the summer and fall. When ready to open the ski season, the ski center uncovers the pile and spreads the snow to create trails. Though many nordic …

The Food-Energy-Water Nexus, Embodied Injustices, And Transboundary Sustainability, Sonya Ahamed

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Intersections of food, energy, and water systems (the FEW nexus) pose many sustainability and governance challenges, including risks to ecosystems, inequitable distribution of benefits and harms across populations, and reliance on distant sources for food, energy, and water. Nexus-based approaches can offer more holistic pathways for societal transitions to FEW systems that are just and sustainable, but tend to focus narrowly on inputs (e.g. water ‘for’ energy) in ways that do little to address the historical roots and structural underpinnings of current system inadequacies, thus risking their perpetuation.

This dissertation widens the FEW nexus in two contexts in which the …

An International Pilot Study Of Volunteer Stream Monitoring Groups: The Role Of Place Attachment In Volunteer Motivations, Rachel Pierson

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Engaging the public in scientific research through volunteer monitoring (a form of community science) has potential to expand knowledge of conditions and to improve collaborative decision-making. Many studies have sought to understand motivations for participation and potential resulting actions or behaviors that benefit the environment. Place-based connections have been demonstrated to lead people to adopt environmentally responsible behaviors. However, few studies have considered possible differences in motivations across countries or the role place attachment may play as a driver of initial or sustained participation.

The aim of this research was to determine the extent to which place attachment influences people’s …

Enhancing Ecosystem Services And Climate Resilience In Agriculture: A Transdisciplinary Approach, Alissa White

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

A complex of social, economic and environmental factors influences agricultural management in the northeastern US. Farmers often balance goals of farm viability, environmental stewardship, and resilience to climate change, while also under public pressure to enhance the provisioning of ecosystem services from their landscapes. Changes in farm management have been identified as cost-effective ways to address both local water quality issues, and global anthropogenic influences on greenhouse gas concentrations. Individual decision-making on the part of farmers that determines the fate of ecosystem service provisioning from agroecosystems, placing increasing importance on understanding how policy, outreach and research can support farmers’ capacity …

Policy And Economic Variables Influencing Adoption Of Sustainable Electrification In Rural Sub-Saharan Africa, Payne William Morgan

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Limited access to electricity remains a primary constraint to economic growth and the improvement of livelihoods throughout sub-Saharan Africa. In rural areas, electricity access is especially sparse. The reasons for the scarcity of electricity supply in the region are well documented, with low population density, limited household incomes, and poor regulatory institutions compounding to often make the investment of expanding electricity access result in poor or risky economic returns. However, the declining cost of solar PV and mandates for clean energy development throughout the region have created new channels for bringing electricity supply in potentially more cost-effective ways.Despite these macro …

After The Flood: Exploring The Influence Of Risk Perception And Decision Criteria Preference On Flood Mitigation In The Lake Champlain Richelieu River Basin, Emma Jane Spett

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

In April of 2011, heavy rainfall paired with snow melt from the Green and Adirondack Mountains caused unprecedented flooding in the Lake Champlain Richelieu River (LCRR) basin. A study was subsequently convened by the International Joint Commission (IJC), and was tasked with identifying how flood forecasting, preparedness, and mitigation could be improved in order to reduce the impact of flooding in this transboundary watershed, and build the greater community’s resilience to flooding. A component of this study includes an assessment of the social acceptability and political feasibility of potential flood mitigation measures, which was in part carried out through the …

From Tap To Table: Consumer Values, Producer Attitudes, And Vermont Maple Syrup In A Dynamic Landscape, Aidan Conor Mccracken

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Harvesting the sap of maple trees [Acer saccharum] for use in the production of syrups and sugars has a storied history stretching back to the pre-Columbian practices of North America’s indigenous peoples. Since its adaptation by European settlers in the late seventeenth century and into the present day, the production of maple syrup has become especially integral to the livelihoods and cultural identities of farmers in Vermont. While oftentimes esteemed as a timeless agrarian tradition, market forces and environmental changes have led maple syrup producers (or sugarmakers) to adopt new production practices that scarcely resemble the taps, buckets, and draft …

An Analysis Of Energy Transitions At Different Scales: Fossil Fuel Divestment In Higher Education And Individual Behavior, Elizabeth Palchak

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

A sociotechnical energy transition requires both a shift to new technologies and attention to social issues like political movements, policy and human behavior. This dissertation investigates social elements of the renewable energy transition occurring at different scales. The core research questions are: How are universities creating and responding to the shifting language of fossil fuel investments? How and for whom do behavioral interventions work? And finally, do in-home displays (IHDs) change behaviors and attitudes of millennial energy users?

The three studies covered here occurred within higher education and reflect the importance of colleges and universities as dynamic players in energy …

Increasing Private Contributions To Environmental Goods With Behavioral Insights, Hilary Byerly Flint

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Privately owned lands often undersupply environmental benefits and oversupply environmental costs through land use and management decisions. Insights into human behavior suggest a range of cognitive biases and nonstandard preferences that offer alternative explanations for and, perhaps, strategies to influence landowner behavior. People respond to simple changes in context and framing, make inconsistent choices over time, and respond to social influence—the opinions and behavior of peers.

This dissertation applies insights from behavioral science to strategies that seek to influence individual decisions that impact the environment, especially related to land management. First, I review existing experimental research on behavioral insights to …

Governing Water Quality Limits In Agricultural Watersheds, Courtney Ryder Hammond Wagner

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The diffuse runoff of agricultural nutrients, also called agricultural nonpoint source pollution (NPS), is a widespread threat to freshwater resources. Despite decades of research into the processes of eutrophication and agricultural nutrient management, social, economic, and political barriers have slowed progress towards improving water quality. A critical challenge to managing agricultural NPS pollution is motivating landowners to act against their individual farm production incentives in response to distant ecological impacts. The complexity of governing the social-ecological system requires improved understanding of how policy shapes farmer behavior to improve the state of water quality. This dissertation contributes both theoretically and empirically …

Cityscape Connections: National Park Service Relevance And Resilience In Urban Areas, Elizabeth Eleanor Perry

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The National Park Service (NPS) strives to embody U.S. democratic ideals, conserving our collective stories and scenery for their intrinsic value and the enjoyment of current and future generations. However, although these places are conserved for all, they are not enjoyed by all. As with other conservation agencies, the NPS finds itself increasingly concerned with building relevance with diverse potential stewards. In cities, where 80% of the U.S. population and 40% of the NPS portfolio is based, there is a prime opportunity to build relevance with large, diverse, and proximate audiences. Recognizing this opportunity, the NPS initiated its Urban Agenda …

Consumer Engagement With Efficient And Renewable Energy Technology: Case Studies On Smart Meter Utilization And Support For A Community Anaerobic Biodigester System In Vermont, Samantha Whitney Lewandowski

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Residential electricity consumption in the United States has many adverse impacts, such as greenhouse gas emissions, dependence on fossil fuels, and costs. Efficient and renewable energy technologies have the potential to help mitigate some of these impacts, but appear to be under-utilized in the United States. One major barrier to expanding the deployment of these kinds of technologies and maximizing the benefits they can provide is a lack of consumer engagement. The overall purpose of this thesis is to better understand the extent to which efficient and renewable energy technologies are being engaged with and what factors may influence such …

Exploration Of New Methods In Long Distance Transportation Data Collection And Tourism Travel In Vermont, Benjamin Kaufman

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

ABSTRACT

Human transportation patterns have continued to shift and increase in rate as technology has made travel between spatially disparate locations more feasible. These movements are responsible for approximately one third of global carbon emissions, and account for one half of Vermont’s greenhouse gas output. Modeling transportation behaviors is difficult due to changing travel patterns and issues of surveying human participants. Long distance travel patterns are especially difficult and have not received the attention that urban mobility has within the literature.

In this Masters thesis, I describe current methods of transportation data collection and propose new methods, as well as …

Shaping Policy In The Anthropocene: Gender Justice As A Social, Economic And Ecological Challenge, Phoebe Spencer

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Environmental pressures such as natural disasters, resource scarcity, and conflict related to climate change have emphasized the importance of considering social justice within its ecological context. Gender inequality is one type of injustice that has traditionally been addressed as a social matter, yet gendered divisions in bargaining power, mobility, and access to resources are exacerbated by environmental instability. One barrier to gender equity in the face of a changing climate is the mainstream economic paradigm, which promotes growth and individualism, often at the cost of environmental and social wellbeing. The issue of gender inequality in the Anthropocene, the proposed geological …

Designing For Economic Success: A 50-State Analysis Of The Genuine Progress Indicator, Mairi-Jane Venesky Fox

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The use of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the primary measure of economic progress has arguably led to unintended consequences of environmental degradation and socially skewed outcomes. The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) was designed to reveal the trade offs associated with conventional economic growth and to assess the broader impact of economic benefits and costs on sustainable human welfare. Although originally designed for use at the national scale, an interest has developed in the United States in a state-level uptake of the GPI to inform and guide policy. However, questions exist about the quality and legitimacy of the GPI as …

What’S In Your Body Of Water? Reducing The Psychological Distance Of Pharmaceutical Pollution Through Metaphor In Risk Communication, Alexandra Z. Millarhouse

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Aquatic pharmaceutical pollution poses ecotoxicological risks to the environment and human health. Consumer attitudes and behavior represent a significant source of pharmaceutical compounds found in water. Thus, understanding public perceptions of aquatic pharmaceutical pollution and developing effective risk communication techniques are critical to engaging society in the type of widespread change necessary for addressing the presence of pharmaceuticals in water. This mixed-methods study applies conceptual metaphor theory in conjunction with construal level theory of psychological distance to assess how metaphoric framing affects perceptions of aquatic pharmaceutical contamination across four principal dimensions of psychological distance (geographic, social and temporal distance and …

The Role Of Transportation In Expanding The Democratic Ideal Of National Parks, Xiao Xiao

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

National parks have famously been called "America's best idea" and preserve the nation's natural and cultural resources for the enjoyment of all. One of the current working priorities of the National Park Service (NPS) is enhancing the relevancy and engagement of the national parks with diverse audiences, especially for underserved groups. To address this priority, transportation is needed to provide access to national parks, but transportation may not be equally accessible to all groups in society. Understanding the effects of transportation on visitation to the national parks by racial/ethnic groups is essential for the NPS to improve the accessibility of …

Placing Natural Resource Decisions In Social And Historical Contexts: Sociological Inquiries Into Agency Communications, Management Rationalities, And Community Change, Emilian Geczi

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

A sociological understanding of natural resource management decisions traces the links between historical change (How does this historical period differ from other periods?), society (What social relations exist at this time and how do they persist or change?), and individuals (What types of conduct and discourse prevail in this society and in this period?). The papers submitted for this dissertation examine the connections between identity, social milieu, and historical change relative to three resource management issues:

(1) The promotion of nature play areas as a novel landscape form. Analysis of agency materials suggests that these spaces are advertised as bucolic …

Influence Of Mission, Audience, And Policy Context On Issue Framing: A Case Study Of Mobilization Against Hydraulic Fracturing In The Marcellus Shale, Rezwana Zafar

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The case of mobilization against hydraulic fracturing by interest groups provided an opportunity to examine the influence of three factors (mission, audience, and policy context) on diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing. A comparative analysis was conducted of the mobilization activities of five national environmental organizations with a local presence in the Pennsylvania and New York Marcellus Shale regions. The organizations varied with respect to organizational mission, the audiences they were targeting (urban and rural), and the policy context in which they worked (pro and anti-hydraulic fracturing). Data came from eleven semi-structured in-depth interviews with organization personnel, and from the organizations' …

Collaboration And Conflict In The Adirondack Park: An Analysis Of Conservation Discourses Over Time, Jeffrey Michael O'Donnell

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The role of collaboration within conservation is of increasing interest to scholars, managers and forest communities. Collaboration can take many forms, but one under-studied topic is the form and content of public discourses across conservation project timelines. To understand the discursive processes that influence conservation decision-making, this research evaluates the use of collaborative rhetoric and claims about place within discourses of conservation in the Adirondacks. Local newspaper articles and editorials published from January 1996 to December 2013 and concerning six major conservation projects were studied using content analysis. Results show that collaborative rhetoric increased during the study period, and conflict …

Management By Crisis: Land Trust Conservation Engagement And Methods In Vermont, Louise Sopher Lintilhac

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Planning a future for the landscapes we live in can be a daunting challenge for many communities in Vermont. Conservation initiatives affect the quality of life for all community members and can be difficult if not impossible to change in the event of poor planning. Through examining stakeholder relationships with land trusts I have explored the complexities of planning processes used by land trusts in Vermont for conservation initiatives

The study involved one statewide land trust, the Vermont Land Trust, and two community land trusts, the Stowe Land Trust and the Duxbury Land Trust. I used qualitative methods including document …

Effects Of Pcb Contamination On The Environment And The Cultural Integrity Of The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe In The Mohawk Nation Of Akwesasne, Kim Ellen Mcrae

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The following research project examines the effects of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) on the environment and the cultural integrity of the St. Regis Mohawk tribe in the Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne. This indigenous community has been subjected to widespread long-term industrial pollution from nearby toxic hazardous waste facilities and Superfund sites.

The Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne has the distinction of being the only tribe whose officially recognized territory straddles the border between the United States and Canada. Using qualitative methodologies, coupled with an interdisciplinary framework, this study successfully engages with Akwesasne community members to explore such issues as bottom-up approaches to …

Early Adoption Dynamics Of Private Sustainability Governance Initiatives: A Case Study Of The Marine Cultured-Pearl Industry, Julie Nash

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

We are witnessing a time of unprecedented human impact on the natural environment. Coral reefs, one of the most biologically diverse and productive ecosystems, are at the forefront of enduring these human impacts. Despite widespread recognition of coral reef degradation, counter measures have not reached a scale to offset the threat. The magnitude of this and other environmental issues call for a deeper understanding of the role the private sector can play in sustainable development.

In response to environmental pressures and the shortcomings of global-scale governance, private sustainability governance initiatives have developed. In the last decade, these initiatives have flourished, …

Discourse As Social Process In Outdoor Recreation And Natural Resource Management: Arguing, Constructing, And Performing, Monika Marie Derrien

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation examines the language-based, discursive processes through which meanings and experiences are socially constituted in outdoor recreation and natural resource environments. Language use and discourse are seen as interactive, constructive processes, approached through the theoretical perspectives of argumentation, social constructionism, and performance.

Three qualitative studies, based in data collected at Acadia National Park and forest-related sites throughout Vermont, comprise this dissertation. The first study uses rhetorical analysis to examine the ways National Park Service managers and community leaders argue for the meanings and management of dark night skies in and around Acadia. The second study examines how national park …

Get Real: An Examination Of The Real Food Challenge At The University Of Vermont, Jennifer Porter

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The Real Food Challenge (RFC) is a national student movement that is trying to harness student power to shift $1 billion'roughly 20% of college and university food budgets across the country towards local, ecologically sound, fair, and humane food sources, what they call "real" food, by 2020. The University of Vermont (UVM) was the fifth university in the country to sign the Real Food Campus Commitment, pledging to shift at least 20% of its own food budget towards "real" food by 2020. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the implementation of the Real Food Campus Commitment at UVM. …

The Impact Of Engagement With Community Supported Agriculture On Human Attitude Towards The Sustainable Food Movement, Ariana Margarita Cano

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

With a total of 164 community supported agriculture programs (CSA), Vermont is leading the "locavore" movement in the United States, ranked number one in the country with the most CSAs and Food Hubs per capita. ("Locavore Index," 2013)

CSAs have a large positive impact on reducing carbon emissions, advancing local economic growth, and promoting healthy lifestyles of consumers. The purpose of this study is to explore the overall experience of individuals in comparison to their current social norm, individual attitudes, identity, and intentions of change, and understand any change overtime in their individual attitude and behavior.

Attitude change was measured …