Cultural Theory, Wildfire Information Source, and Agency Public Trust: A Central Oregon Case Study.

With the increasing occurrence and severity of wildfires in the U.S., and especially in the forests and rangelands of the western U.S., it is important to know which wildfire information sources are trusted by households and the amount of trust placed on natural resources agencies to manage for wildfire. The Theory of Motivated Reasoning suggests that people will trust and use those information sources that conform to their own value and ideological orientations. Similarly, trust in natural resource agencies' ability to manage wildfire may also be the result of cultural traits. This study uses Cultural Theory as a theoretical perspective to determine those value systems, and how cultural traits motivate people to use and trust various wildfire information sources and the agencies tasked with managing wildfire. Using random sample surveys of Wildland-Urban-Interface (WUI) households in fire-prone Deschutes County in central Oregon, the study finds that egalitarians are significantly more likely than those with other cultural traits to use and trust natural resource agency information sources, while individualists are more likely to use and trust family members and neighbors for their information. Similarly, egalitarians are trusting of natural resource managers to use prescribed fire, manage naturally ignited fires, and to thin forests to reduce fuels. Individualists are less trusting of government agencies to use the same approaches to reduce fuels. The study concludes with some suggestions for how wildfire policy makers and managers can use these findings to communicate more effectively important wildfire information to audiences with differing cultural traits and differing levels of natural resource agency trust.

Public Water Policy Knowledge and Policy Preferences in the American West.

The Western United States has made significant contributions to agricultural products both domestically and internationally. As the Western U.S. continues to grapple with water scarcity and extended periods of drought, evidence of misalignment between crop production and the volume of water necessary to maintain abundant food yields is becoming more pronounced. There are several policy nudges and mitigation strategies that can be employed to bring water availability and crop selection into alignment. Whether there is public support for these policies, or knowledge of how policies could impact water use in agriculture, it is important to understand what those preferences are and how people weigh tradeoffs between developing agricultural and water use. Using random household surveys of residents in the western U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and California, this study explores public water knowledge, the correlates of public water knowledge, and the impact knowledge has on preferred water policies while controlling for demographic characteristics, environmental efficacy, climate change belief, and political ideology. Findings show that knowledge does have an independent impact on preferred approaches to water policies while controlling for demographic characteristics, environmental efficacy, belief in climate change, and political ideology. Respondents who are knowledgeable about water recycling for food and water use for agriculture were significantly more supportive of water conservation policy approaches and less supportive of water supply-side approaches.

Environmental Efficacy, Climate Change Beliefs, Ideology, and Public Water Policy Preferences.

Water is an unpredictable and often overallocated resource in the American West, one that strains policy makers to come up with viable, and politically acceptable policies to mitigate water management concerns. While large federal reclamation projects once dominated western water management and provided ample water for large scale agricultural development as well as the urbanization of the West, water engineering alone is no longer sufficient or, in some cases, a politically acceptable policy option. As demand for water in the West increases with an ever-growing population, climate change is presenting a more challenging and potentially untenable, reality of even longer periods of drought and insufficient water quantity. The complexity of managing water resources under climate change conditions will require multifaceted and publicly acceptable strategies. This paper therefore examines water policy preferences of residents in four western states: Washington, Oregon, California, and Idaho. Using a public survey conducted in these states in 2019, we examine preferences pertaining to infrastructural, education, incentives and regulation specifically examining levels of support for varying policies based on climate change and environmental efficacy beliefs as well as geography, demographic variables, and political ideology. Results show support for all water policies surveyed, with the exception of charging higher rates for water during the hottest part of summer. The most preferred water policies pertained to tax incentives. Some variation of support exists based on gender, education, environmental values, efficacy, state residency and belief in anthropogenic climate change.

The Future of Food: Understanding Public Preferences for the Management of Agricultural Resources.

The current U.S food system has managed to provide abundant food at a relatively low cost, even as the population increases. However, this unfettered growth is reaching maximum yields as demand for greater food production competes with other uses of agricultural lands. Extant ecological factors such as water scarcity are reducing food productivity, and competition for resources to produce food is becoming more apparent. This research examines public policy preferences of U.S. west coast citizens for the management of agricultural resources through the use of random household surveys. Results suggest overall support among respondents for food policies using regulatory, tax incentive, and voluntary outreach approaches. Multivariate analyses revealed that some social-demography, knowledge, environmental values, political ideology, and environmental efficacy variables were significant predictors of public opposition and support for food policies.

The Impact of Efficacy, Values, and Knowledge on Public Preferences Concerning Food-Water-Energy Policy Tradeoffs.

Food, water, and energy (FWE) policies often entail contentious tradeoffs. For example, increasing food production may involve irrigation from riparian sources that may adversely impact fisheries habitats, the siting of solar energy on agricultural lands can impact food production, and increasing food production capacity may require pesticides in certain locations, resulting in environmental pollution. Because public preferences are an important component of support for and opposition to FWE policy design and implementation, it is important to understand the correlates of support and opposition to FWE policy tradeoffs. Using survey data from random household surveys conducted in western U.S. states during 2018, this study examined how environmental efficacy, values, and knowledge affected FWE public tradeoff preferences. The findings suggest that these characteristics do affect public FWE tradeoff preferences, with knowledge being a strong driver of support for food production over biofuels, water friendly crops over meat production and conservation over water intensive agriculture. Additionally, environmental efficacy and pro-ecological attitudes drive support for access to safe drinking water and sanitation over food security for a growing population.

Environmental value considerations in public attitudes about alternative energy development in Oregon and Washington.

The 2013 Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy signed by the Governors of California, Oregon, and Washington and the Premier of British Columbia launched a broadly announced public commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through multiple strategies. Those strategies include the development and increased use of renewable energy sources. The initiative recognized that citizens are both a central component in abating greenhouse gas emissions with regard to their energy use behaviors, and are important participants in the public policymaking process at both state and local levels of government. The study reported here examines whether either support or opposition to state government leadership in the development of alternative energy technologies can be explained by environmental values as measured by the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP). The research results are based on mail surveys of randomly selected households conducted throughout Oregon and Washington in late 2009 and early 2010. Findings suggest that younger and more highly educated respondents are significantly more likely than older and less educated respondents to either support or strongly support government policies to promote bioenergy, wind, geothermal, and solar energy. Those respondents with higher NEP scores are also more supportive of government promotion of wind, geothermal, and solar technologies than are those with lower NEP scores. Support for wave energy does not show a statistical correlation with environmental values, maybe a reflection of this technology's nascent level of development. The paper concludes with a consideration of the implications of these findings for environmental management.