Garnering public acceptance of restoration options in midwestern ecosystems via education dissemination.

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of ecological information/education on perceptual evaluations of a sample of woodland sites in Midwestern USA. A computer-administered perceptual survey presented digital video images of 45 sites, ranging from relatively open savannah to dense woodland, to separate groups of college students who provided ratings of either perceived scenic beauty or acceptability (of environmental policy outcomes). Subjects in the education condition were first presented with a brief verbal and pictorial message emphasizing the history and the biological/ecological benefits of either savannah ecosystems (emphasizing the importance of "openness and open areas") or woodland ecosystems (emphasizing the importance of "protective cover and maintaining tree density"). Subjects in the non-education conditions received only general information about environmental and ecological management on public lands in the Midwest. Subjects in all conditions exhibited strong and internally consistent aesthetic and policy preferences across the 45 sites presented. There were consistently strong positive correlations between scenic beauty and policy acceptance ratings. In spite of the education manipulations intended to foster differential preferences for more open sites (savannah education) versus more dense sites (woodland education) correlations were uniformly strong and positive between savannah and woodland instructed groups, as well as between education and non-education groups for both scenic beauty and policy acceptability ratings. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)