COS 212-5 - Stewardship, not Restoration: Mismatch between attitudes & behavior in grassland wildlife conservation on private lands

Background/Question/Methods

Landowner engagement has become a priority for non-governmental organizations, agencies, and researchers working to facilitate private land conservation. However, community engagement can be challenged by the apparent conflict between conservation and agriculture. Grassland regions typify this conflict in management priorities, with conversion to row-crop agriculture and intensification of livestock grazing both contributing to precipitous declines in many taxa. It is perhaps unsurprising that agricultural stakeholders have been conceptualized as in opposition to more conservation-minded residents, who use their land for recreational purposes.

To understand the heterogeneity in values for landowners living in a grassland landscape, we aimed to 1) create landowner classification based on land management priorities; and 2) assess how landowner classifications correspond to attitudes toward grassland wildlife and management behaviors that benefit biodiversity. Data for this study were collected from a mixed-mode survey sent to residents living in the Grand River Grasslands at the eastern edge of U.S. Great Plains in 2017 (response rate 32.7%). We analyzed this data using latent profile analysis of management priorities such as row crop agriculture, livestock production, recreation, and wildlife habitat.

Results/Conclusions

Based on latent profile analysis, we classified landowners into three groups. The first group rated recreation as very important, with a moderate importance ascribed to row crops, and little importance to livestock (41% of respondents, ‘recreational’). The second class was similar in regard to recreation, but rated livestock production as most important, with row crops given little importance (36.5%, ‘integrated’). The final group was more production oriented, rating both livestock and row crops as very important (19.8%, ‘agricultural’). Recreational landowners tended to rate all taxa more important than agricultural landowners, with the integrated recreation-livestock class intermediate. However, despite differences in priorities and attitudes, few differences were found in the use of management behaviors that benefit biodiversity. The integrated class used perennial seeding more often than recreational landowners, with agricultural intermediate. All three classes used woody plant removal the most frequently, which benefits grassland birds. Despite evidence for similar environmental stewardship across all three groups, attitudes toward restoration differed, indicating that targeted outreach for these groups is more likely to be successful. Our study shows how understanding of landowner attitudes, priorities, and behavior can support the design of communication strategies grounded in local values.