Comparison of Attitudes towards Roadside Vegetation Management across an Exurban Landscape

Steven Difalco,Anita Morzillo

doi:10.3390/land10030308

Abstract

Exurban development is the fastest growing land use across the United States (US). Its prevalence on the East Coast is susceptible to natural disaster events such as hurricanes and nor’easters. However, the socio-ecological processes related to disaster mitigation within exurban areas remain understudied. Our objective was to integrate social and landscape data to compare resident attitudes towards utility roadside vegetation management across four areas in the state of Connecticut, US. We collected data from residents using two mail surveys completed in 2017 and 2019 (n = 1962). From the survey questions, three attitude variables measured perceptions of the utility vegetation management process, and tradeoffs between protecting trees and maintaining reliable power. Across all locations, respondents with more favorable attitudes toward vegetation management were more likely to have greater knowledge about trees, and beliefs that trees should be used for human benefit; land cover characteristics and sociodemographic variables were less strongly associated with attitudes scores. Respondents differed among study areas in their preferences for aesthetics of roadside trees and their basic beliefs regarding the importance of trees. The results suggested that social processes within the exurban landscapes are spatially heterogeneous. Therefore, local variation in residential preferences for vegetation management may influence support for natural disaster management policy.

Highlights

Exurban development, referred to as low-density development, is the fastestgrowing land-use type in the United States (US) [1,2]
Respondents differed among study areas in their preferences for aesthetics of roadside trees and their basic beliefs regarding the importance of trees
Compared with the original survey respondents, those who completed the non-response follow-up survey (n= 347) were younger, less likely to have been in their current residence during recent major storms, more likely to agree that reliable power is more important than protecting trees, and more likely to agree that more intensive tree work will require less frequent management over the long term

Summary

Introduction

Referred to as low-density development, is the fastestgrowing land-use type in the United States (US) [1,2]. Exurban land use and development affect landscape-level processes, including human-wildlife conflicts [3,4], wetland permanence [5], and species diversity [6,7]. The extent of exurban lands are more prevalent in the eastern US [14], where they are susceptible to a broad range of natural disasters including hurricanes [15,16], nor’easters [17], ice storms [18], forest fires [19], and severe flooding [20]. Given the expected growth of exurban development [2,21,22,23], and the projected increase in severity and frequency of natural disaster events [24], social processes are likely to influence support for mitigation strategies for natural disasters [20,25] within the expanding exurban land use classification

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion