Comparing newer and longer-term residents' perceptions and actions in response to forest insect disturbance on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula: A longitudinal perspective

Abstract

Many parts of rural America have experienced various types of reverse migration flows from urban areas since the 1970s. Recent rural in-migration is increasingly driven by people seeking natural amenities, and tends to concentrate in traditional natural resource-based communities or wildland–urban interface areas. These communities are often at risk from a variety of ecological disturbances (e.g., insects, wildfires, and droughts) that are expected to be exacerbated by environmental change across different scales. A common strategy in studying the potential social, economic, and environmental impacts of rural in-migration is to compare rural migrants to non-migrants on relevant perceptions, attitudes, and activities. However, despite the highly dynamic nature of rural population change, few studies have assessed temporal shifts in migrant-nonmigrant differences. Alaska's Kenai Peninsula has experienced both a large spruce bark beetle outbreak and substantial in-migration in recent decades. Drawing on longitudinal survey data (2004 and 2008) from six rural communities there, this study explores the evolution of differences between newer and longer-term rural residents in community experience, perceptions, and activeness in response to the beetle outbreak. The analysis revealed newcomers initially indicated higher degrees of perceived tree mortality and forest risks, but lower levels of community wildfire experience, satisfaction with private landowners and government land managers, and participation in typical community activities and community response to the beetle disturbance when compared with longer-term residents. The difference between the two resident groups in community activeness became even greater over the four-year study period despite a general trend of coalescent community emergency experience and perceptions among local residents.