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Developing scientific information that is used in policy and practice has been a longstanding challenge in many sectors and disciplines, including climate change adaptation for natural resource management. One approach to address this problem encourages scientists and decision-makers to co-produce usable information collaboratively. Researchers have proposed general principles for climate science co-production, yet few studies have applied and evaluated these principles in practice. In this study, climate change researchers and natural resource managers co-produced climate-related knowledge that was directly relevant for on-going habitat management planning. We documented our methods and assessed how and to what extent the process led to the near-term use of co-produced information, while also identifying salient information needs for future research. The co-production process resulted in: 1) an updated natural resource management plan that substantially differed from the former plan in how it addressed climate change, 2) increased understanding of climate change, its impacts, and management responses among agency staff, and 3) a prioritized list of climate-related information needs that would be useful for management decision-making. We found that having a boundary spanner—an intermediary with relevant science and management expertise that enables exchange between knowledge producers and users—guide the co-production process was critical to achieving outcomes. Central to the boundary spanner’s role were a range of characteristics and skills, such as knowledge of relevant science, familiarity with management issues, comfort translating science into practice, and an ability to facilitate climate-informed planning. By describing specific co-production methods and evaluating their effectiveness, we offer recommendations for others looking to co-produce climate change information to use in natural resource management planning and implementation.

Understanding why private property owners take actions to conserve bats has become increasingly important in U.S. states where the fungus causing white-nose syndrome (Pseudogymnoascus destructans) has decimated bat populations. We surveyed property owners in three New York State counties (n = 2,500) and used multiple linear regression analyses to test predictors of intentions to conserve bats. Intentions to take actions that contribute to bat conservation directly were predicted by severity of rabies consequences, sense of bat conservation self efficacy, beliefs about responsibility for bat conservation, and attitudes toward bats (R² =.39). Intentions to take actions that conserve bats indirectly were predicted by biospheric value orientations, beliefs about responsibility for bat conservation, and attitudes toward bats (R² =.27). The relationship between beliefs about rabies and intentions to take actions that contribute to bat conservation highlights the need for coordinated risk communication between public health and wildlife conservation organizations.

The order in which individuals receive information about wildlife may influence their attitude toward wildlife differently. We explored order effects of a threat message that induced more fear versus a suffering message that elicited more compassion on attitude toward wildlife. Specifically, we focused on bats, a risk-laden species also suffering massive mortalities due to a disease affecting bat populations across the United States. We randomly assigned 1,506 U.S. adults to one of eight message conditions as part of a 2 (message order: suffering → threat vs. threat → suffering) × 2 (suffering messages) × 2 (threat messages) between-subjects factorial design or a control (no message) condition. We found a significant two-way interaction between message order and biospheric values on attitude toward bats. For people with high biospheric values, reading a suffering message first led to a more positive attitude than reading a threat message first, whereas reading a threat message first led to a more positive attitude than reading a suffering message first for people with low biospheric values. Compassion but not fear mediated these effects. Theoretical and practical implications are provided.

Climate change presents a complex set of challenges for natural resource managers across North America. Despite recognition that climate change poses serious threats to species, ecosystems, and human communities, implementation of adaptation measures is not yet happening on a broad scale. Among different regions, a range of climate change trajectories, varying political contexts, and diverse social and ecological systems generate a myriad of factors that can affect progress on climate change adaptation implementation. In order to understand the general versus site-specific nature of barriers and opportunities influencing implementation, we surveyed and interviewed practitioners, decision-makers, and scientists involved in natural resource management in four different North American regions, northern Ontario (Canada), the Adirondack State Park (US), Arctic Alaska (US), and the Transboundary Rocky Mountains (US and Canada). Common barriers among regions related to a lack of political support and financial resources, as well as challenges related to translating complex and interacting effects of climate change into management actions. Opportunities shared among regions related to collaboration, funding, and the presence of strong leadership. These commonalities indicate the importance of cross-site learning about ways to leverage opportunities and address adaptation barriers; however, regional variations also suggest that adaptation efforts will need to be tailored to fit specific ecological, political, social and economic contexts. Comparative findings on the similarities and differences in barriers and opportunities, as well as rankings of barriers and opportunities by region, offers important contextual insights into how to further refine efforts to advance adaptation actions in those regions.

Large landscape planning for wildlife corridors often requires inclusion of private lands and willing landowners to establish successful pathways to and from protected core habitats. Using mail survey data, we spatially assessed carnivore occurrences, perceptions of carnivores, and landowner preferences toward conservation planning tools from three communities to quantify conservation opportunity and risk related to carnivore movement on the landscape. The mapping of social data illustrates the importance of understanding individuals for conservation planning. The approach has the potential to identify areas that pose risks or present opportunities for the implementation of on-the-ground conservation actions to facilitate long-term wildlife movement across private lands.

Carnivore range expansion creates opportunities for human–wildlife conflicts. Wildlife attitudes and values, factual knowledge, and risk perception have all been proposed as variables to measure or predict social acceptability of wildlife management. We examined the social acceptability of natural recolonization of mountain lions (Puma concolor; an extirpated carnivore) in the Adirondack Park, New York, USA. We administered questionnaires in person to 315 Adirondack residents and visitors during summer 2013. We also posed questions to 800 New York State residents in a telephone survey during winter 2014. We tested five hypotheses: 1) wildlife attitude and values scale scores predict stated support for restoration of mountain lions in the Adirondack Park; 2) people more knowledgeable about mountain lions perceive less risk and indicate greater support for mountain lion restoration; 3) women report greater perceived risk than do men from mountain lions; 4) residents will report greater perceived risk than nonresidents; and 5) respondents who participate in activities such as hiking and hunting in the Park will perceive less risk than those who do not. A majority of respondents supported natural recolonization of mountain lions to the Adirondack Park. Results of our regression model indicated that perceived risk and factual knowledge influence support for mountain lion restoration, with more knowledgeable respondents perceiving lower risk and reporting greater support. To reduce the potential for human–wildlife conflict and moderate risk perceptions, we recommend wildlife agencies and others consider conveying educational messages about how stakeholders can coexist with large predators in areas in which they are recolonizing. © 2015 The Wildlife Society.

Collaboration provides one tool for managing the complicated and often the contentious natural resource issues. Successful collaborative arrangements involve a mix of actors bringing key attributes to the table: power, capacity, motivation, mandate, and synergy. These attributes, if missing or if one overshadows the rest, can derail the collaborative process and/or the conservation outcomes. We offer a case study of natural gas field development impacts on America's only endemic ungulate-pronghorn (Antilocapra americana)-winter range in the Upper Green River Basin (UGRB), Wyoming, USA. We illustrate how a collaborative process can go awry, given asymmetries between the relative strengths and the associated attributes of actors, and the subsequent extent to which this imbalance created an unfavorable situation for continued collaboration. The case study reveals disagreements on technical data and potential insight on agency capture operating at a local scale. Despite these process challenges, some conservation outcomes resulted from work generated by the collaboration. Our experience underscores the importance of defining a clear purpose for collaborative processes at the outset, articulating specific roles, ensuring transparency among actors, and flexibility for long-term management as possible ways, in which the groups involved in collaborations to manage natural resources can complement each other's strengths and strive for better conservation outcomes.

We examined the impacts of exurban development on bird communities in Essex County, New York and Madison County, Montana by comparing differences in abundance of songbirds between subdivisions and control sites in both regions. We hypothesized that impacts to bird communities would be greater in the relatively homogeneous, closed canopy Adirondack forest of northern New York State than they would be in the more naturally heterogeneous grasslands interspersed with trees and shrubs of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. We examined birds in five functional groups expected to be responsive to exurban development, and determined relative abundance within subdivisions and control sites across these two distinct regions. We found little support for our hypothesis. For birds in the area-sensitive, low nesting, and Neotropical migrant functional groups, relative abundance was lower in subdivisions in the Adirondacks and in Madison County, while relative abundance of edge specialists was greater in subdivisions in both regions. The direction and magnitude of change in the avian communities between subdivisions and controls was similar in both regions for all guilds except microhabitat specialists. These similarities across diverse ecosystems suggest that the ecological context of the encompassing region may be less important than other elements in shaping avian communities in exurban systems. This finding suggests that humans and their specific behaviors and activities in exurban areas may be underappreciated but potentially important drivers of change in these regions.

State wildlife agencies (SWAs) manage natural resources for the benefit of the common good. However, effective management in today’s complex world requires institutional capacity that can address s...

Exurban development represents a potential threat to wildlife communities and ecological integrity in rural landscapes worldwide and recent work has suggested that its ecological impacts can be similar to those associated with more characteristically urban development patterns. Despite the large scope and rapid pace of exurbanization, understanding of its ecological consequences is incomplete and most North American research has occurred in the western United States. The ecological impact zone denotes the area surrounding a home which should be considered affected habitat and has been shown to be demonstrably larger than the actual footprint of homes and lawns. We conducted a study to determine whether an impact zone of 180 m identified for a shrub-oak community in the Rocky Mountain west was applicable in an eastern, closed forest system. We sampled bird communities at the forest/lawn edge of exurban homes, and at 200- and 400-m in surrounding forest and modeled occupancy at increasing distances from residential structures for human-adapted, human-sensitive, and neutral species. Occupancy rates of human-adapted and human-sensitive species were different (36% higher and 26% lower, respectively) at points near homes versus those in surrounding forest. Our findings indicate a similarity in the effects of exurban homes on avian communities and the size of the ecological impact zone in these structurally different eastern and western North American landscapes. This similarity suggests the possibility that human behaviors associated with exurban homes may play a larger role in shaping avian community characteristics nearby than do habitat alterations created by construction and clearing.

Partnerships between local people and conservation organizations can make significant contributions to long-term success in conserving biological diversity, and managing resources sustainably. Stro...

Military personnel and affiliates have significant buying power that can influence demand for wildlife products. Purchase and transport of certain wildlife products violates United States laws, military regulations, and national country laws where the items were purchased. We surveyed military bazaars (n = 4) in Kabul, Afghanistan from June 2007 to March 2009 to observe which species were available to soldiers. In June 2008, we conducted a pilot survey of U.S. Army personnel (n = 371) stationed at Fort Drum, New York, USA, who had been deployed or stationed overseas including in Afghanistan and Iraq. Soldiers reported skins of wild felids and gray wolf Canis lupus as most commonly observed wildlife products available for sale in Afghanistan. Forty percent of respondents said they had either purchased or seen other members of the military purchase or use wildlife products. The U.S. military was willing to assist in curtailing supply and demand for wildlife products in order to protect soldiers from unknowingly breaking the law and to conserve wildlife in the countries where they serve. Regular, focused training of military personnel should be considered an important step to reducing trade in wildlife products by addressing both demand and market supply.

Effective methods to identify areas and people prone to human–wildlife conflicts help wildlife and land managers develop strategies that minimize unwanted human–wildlife interactions. We combined landscape variables (i.e., housing density, habitat quality) with data on local land use practices and sociodemographics from a mail survey of 730 landowners to anticipate perceptions of human–black bear (Ursus americanus) interactions in the Adirondack Park in Northern New York, USA. Generalized linear models indicated that specific experiences (e.g., bears approaching people), general concerns about wildlife, and actual property damage were most closely related to perceiving a negative interaction with bears. Similar perceptions of human–bear interactions were spatially clustered. Negative and indifferent perceptions of bear interactions were associated with less support for wildlife protection programs. Strategies fostering information exchange between wildlife managers and land use planners may be effective i...

We explored factors influencing people's perceptions of human–wildlife interactions in residential areas, reporting interactions to authorities, and potential conservation implications. Data were obtained from a mail survey of 1,439 landowners. We used logistic regression to predict probabilities of having non-positive perceptions and reporting interactions to authorities. Our models predicted perceptions relatively well; factors influencing perceptions included attitudes toward wildlife, experiences with wildlife, age, urban or rural upbringing, and location of current residence. Our models did not predict reports of human–wildlife interactions with satisfactory accuracy. Overall perceptions of wildlife interactions were more positive compared to perceptions of experiences with specific species around respondents' homes. Those not having positive interactions demonstrated less support for land and wildlife conservation. Future research should explore species-specific and incident-specific details to anti...

Compromises in biodiversity and biotic integrity from human development alter native wildlife communities. Anecdotal evidence suggests that increases in residential development contribute to increases in human–wildlife interactions; however, little empirical research has addressed this issue. We tested whether housing density could be used to indicate patterns of reported human–wildlife interactions in Northern New York. We used a novel application of univariate and bivariate K-functions to assess the spatial relationship of reported human–wildlife interactions along a gradient of housing densities. We found that reported human–wildlife interactions are not completely spatially random in Northern New York State and the reports tend to cluster more in areas dominated by suburban and exurban housing densities compared to areas with urban or wildland housing densities. Low-density developments have unintended ecological consequences including an increase in reported human–wildlife interactions. Further work is needed to determine specific reasons for clustering of reported human–wildlife interactions in suburban and exurban areas. However, planners should consider human–wildlife interactions as a potential negative outcome of low-density development and devise development designs, such as clustering, to reduce future human–wildlife conflicts.

Conservation biology is continually developing new tools and concepts that contribute to our understanding of populations, species and ecosystems (Chapter 1). The science underpinning the field has undoubtedlymade rapid strides generating more effective methods to document biodiversity, monitor species and habitats. Scientists have developed comprehensive priority setting exercises to help determine where and what to conserve in on-going attempts to identify which factors would best serve as the basis for triage for species and ecosystems (Wilson et al. 2007; Chapter 11). They arewell positioned to track the loss of species and ecosystems in broad patterns even if precise details are not always available (Chapter 10). However applying the science effectively requires the efforts of conservation biologists combined with a diversity of other actors, most of whom are non-biologists and include local and indigenous communities, civil servants at all levels of government, environmental consultants, park managers, environmental lobbyists, private industry, and even themilitary (Box 15.1; Chapter 14). This amorphous group of practitioners will pursue a diverse set of activities which include putting up or taking down fences (literal and metaphorical), lobbying politicians, buying land, negotiating with members of local and indigenous communities, tackling invasive species problems, guarding against poachers andmanaging off-take of plants and animals. There are many pressing challenges facing practical conservation. Forces affecting biodiversity in different ecosystems have altered over the past two decades. For instance, the nature of tropical forest destruction has changed from being dominated by rural farmers to currently being driven substantially by major industries and economic globalization, with timber operations, oil and gas development, large-scale farming and exotic-tree plantations being the most frequent causes of forest loss (see Chapter 4). A direct result of these changes is the need for engaging not just conservation minded individuals and organizations, but those in the largest, and most influential, of the world’s corporations and multilateral institutions (Box 15.2). In addition, the changes in those factors driving loss– and in the scale of loss – requires that we diversify our approaches, and focus not just on biodiversity, but on the whole issue of those goods and services that natural systems provide for us (Daily 1997, Woodwell 2002; Box 15.3). Global threats, and opportunities, such as climate change (Chapter 8), are forcing conservation practitioners to work at a variety of scales to better integrate these challenges (Bonan 2008). Conservation science must meet the continually changing nature of threats to biodiversity (Butler and Laurance 2008); conservation biologists and practitioners need to design and leverage solutions in response to these global changes in threat. Not only is the practice of conservation getting more complicated, but it has a stronger global presence, and increasingly large expenditures (Cobb et al. 2007). As a result, implementing agencies and specifically conservation organizations are being held to a higher standard in monitoring and evaluating their conservation success, and failure (Wells et al. 1999; Ferraro and Pattanayak 2006; see also Box 15.4). Another issue that

Purpose – The purpose is to show that the influx of new seasonal and year-round residents to the small towns located in and around protected areas has numerous implications for governance associated with land management and regional planning including reconciling the competing values of wilderness (amenity vs. livelihood, motorized vs. non-motorized recreation, active vs. passive land management). Methodology/approach – We use case studies from the Adirondack Park in Northern New York State and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in the western United States to demonstrate the land management and governance challenges facing local communities in and around internationally renowned, protected areas. Findings – We highlight how these transforming communities meet diverse needs and competing interests and how partnering with a non-governmental organization benefits local governance issues. Originality/value of chapter – The paper presents research from the United States, which theoretically and empirically contributes to the scientific discourse on exurbanization, protected areas, and governance.