Landowner conservation awareness across rural-to-urban gradients in Massachusetts

Abstract

In many parts of the eastern US, the provision of ecosystem services depends on private land. In these regions, decisions about land management and conservation made by private landowners can have significant effects on habitat and other ecosystem services. Advancing permanent conservation of land can be particularly challenging in dynamic rural-to-urban landscapes facing development pressures. We estimated private landowner “conservation awareness” using a mail survey instrument to assess relative familiarity, knowledge, and experience with various conservation and land management options. Conservation awareness differed significantly by town, implying hotspots and troughs of awareness, potentially leading to significant geographical variation in landowner decision-making and long-term conservation futures. We were surprised to find that conservation awareness did not necessarily diminish in more suburbanized environments of our study area. Higher conservation awareness was related to enhanced conservation social capital at the town level as well as relative affluence. We suggest that low conservation awareness could represent a precursor to or symptom of eventual land use change and hence loss of habitat. As a result, conservation efforts should focus not only on biophysical aspects such as habitat connectivity and rarity, but also on the conservation awareness of owners of private land.