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Increasing literacy among Extension professionals in every sector regarding potential regional impacts and adaptation strategies related to climate change is key to producing high-quality relevant programs addressing climate-related risks. Professionals in the forestry, agriculture, livestock, and coastal resources sectors attended the Southeast Region Extension Climate Academy in fall 2014. Participant surveys and interviews suggested that some of the agents most confused about climate change gained the most from the workshop. Further, focusing on region and sector-specific information made climate change relevant to participants who were initially uninterested in addressing the topic.

Programs within the Cooperative Extension Service often develop partnerships with other agencies and organizations to better meet their common goals. While there are many benefits of partnerships, they can be challenging when the partners are unequal or have dissimilar needs. Using a survey and interviews with faculty and administrators at two land-grant institutions we explore the similarities and differences that pull and push at their partnership. Recommendations to strengthen partnering opportunities at the institutional and program levels are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The educational needs assessment reported here measured North Carolina Cooperative Extension (NCCE) professionals' perceptions of global warming and identified barriers to climate change programming. Survey results from 400 NCCE professionals show 70% are cautious, concerned, or alarmed about global warming. Liberal and female Extension professionals were more likely to be alarmed and concerned than their conservative and male counterparts. Respondents indicated willingness to engage in programming, but need in-service training to address conflicts, gather information, and emphasize relevancy. NCCE professionals perceive lack of audience interest, conflicts within available information, and lack of applied information as the greatest barriers to climate change programming.

State Extension programs can contribute to the successful adoption of national environmental education programs by making locally relevant resources available, creating reference materials to bridge between 4-H project books and other resources, and developing companion materials that supplement national materials with local issues and resources. Such activities provide opportunities to integrate research and teaching with Extension programs and build productive relationships with agencies and organizations. Seven strategies with examples from one state are explained.

We review a popular method for collecing data--Web-based surveys. Although Web surveys are popular, one major concern is their typically low response rates. Using the Dillman et al. (2009) approach, we designed, pre-tested, and implemented a survey on climate change with Extension professionals in the Southeast. The Dillman approach worked well, and we generated response rates as high as 79%. However, the method was not problem-free. We share several lessons learned and recommendations for increasing response rates with Web-based surveys and draw attention to the importance of personalized and repeated contact for improving survey response rates.

A connection to nature index was developed and tested to measure children's affective attitude toward the natural environment. The index was employed through a survey that investigates students' attitude toward Lagoon Quest, a mandatory environmental education program for all fourth-grade, public school students in Brevard County, Florida. Factor analyses were conducted to explore and confirm different factors in the connection to nature index. A path analysis was conducted to examine the association among variables. The results suggest four dimensions in the children's connection to nature index: (a) enjoyment of nature, (b) empathy for creatures, (c) sense of oneness, and (d) sense of responsibility. Children's connection to nature influences their intention to participate in nature-based activities in the future. Children's connection to nature, their previous experience in nature, their perceived family value toward nature, and their perceived control positively influenced their interest in performing environmentally friendly behaviors. (Contains 2 figures and 2 tables.)

A survey of 45 extension agents and 59 state forestry agency staff 1 year after inservice training on developing public education programs on wildland fire received 71 responses. Three primary barriers to program implementation were identified: educational, logistical, and attitudinal. Providing a toolkit of materials and resources reduced logistical and educational barriers. (Contains 14 references.) (SK)

The 1993 outbreak of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) in the southwestern United States was associated with Sin Nombre virus, a rodent-borne hantavirus; The virus' primary reservoir is the deer mouse [...]

Hope is an important component that helps engage people in solving problems. The development of an instructional model on climate change and forests provided an opportunity to design and test a measurement tool to assess hope about climate change. In this article, we described the process and determined the reliability and validity of a newly developed 11-item Climate Change Hope Scale (CCHS). The study involved high school students from the southeastern United States during fall of 2013 and spring of 2015 (N = 1,902, 14-18 years old). The factor analysis confirmed a three-factor solution with good model fit: (a) collective-sphere willpower and waypower, (b) personal-sphere willpower and waypower, and (c) lack of willpower and waypower. This study suggests that the CCHS is a valid, reliable, and feasible tool to measure hope in the context of climate change among U.S. high school students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Millions of people across the tropics rely on wildlife for food and income. However, overhunting to satisfy this demand is causing the decline of many species; an issue known as the wild meat crisis. We applied a before‐after control‐intervention design to assess the effects of social marketing (an information campaign and community engagement) with and without an economic incentive (discount coupons for chicken) on wild meat consumption. Coupons increased chicken consumption, as expected, but did not reduce wild meat consumption. In contrast, social marketing without the price incentive reduced wild meat consumption by ∼62%. This study demonstrates how social marketing and price incentives may be effective at reducing demand for meat and other wildlife products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]