Erin Kubicek will defend her master’s thesis "An Investigation into Factors Influencing Attitudes toward a Wildlife Corridor" at 10 a.m. Monday, July 11, 2016, at Hardin Hall 901.
Her abstract:
Habitat fragmentation poses a serious threat to biodiversity in eastern Nebraska. Today, over 98% of Nebraska’s tall-grass prairie has been lost and what remains exists mostly as remnants less than 80 acres in size. The Prairie Corridor on Haines Branch will be one of the first man-made wildlife corridors in eastern Nebraska with expansion of prairie habitat as one of its main goals. The purpose of this study is to explore the potential relationship between attitudes toward wildlife corridors, connection to nature, environmental values and norms, providing some insight into the general willingness (or lack thereof) to support conservation-related programs such as wildlife corridors. Park visitors and residents currently living near an existing wildlife corridor were asked to complete a survey measuring attitudes, connection to nature, environmental values, and norms. In total, 152 park visitors and 272 residents completed the survey. Overall, park visitors had significantly higher attitudes toward wildlife corridors than did residents. In addition, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients showed that connection to nature and attitude toward a wildlife corridor were significantly correlated. Altruistic values, biospheric values, and personal and social norms were also significantly correlated with attitudes toward wildlife corridors. Regression analysis was used to test if connection to nature, personal norms, social norms, descriptive norms, egoistic environmental values, altruistic environmental values, and biospheric environmental values significantly predict attitudes toward a wildlife corridor for all participants. The results of the regression analysis indicated the ten predictors explained 41.4% of the variance. It was found that personal norms significantly predicted attitudes toward a wildlife corridor, as did biospheric environmental values.
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/xnjk