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We explored the impact of a daytrip for children aged 10-13 (n = 40) to assess perception of nature. Those who perceived risk in nature were 11.25 times more likely to indicate disinterest in spending time outdoors. Those interested in spending time outdoors were 6.9 times more likely to think people should care more about the environment. Experiences before the daytrip and demographics were explored further; composters were less fearful than their counterparts (p = 0.009), as were older children (p = 0.049). These findings suggest introducing tactile experiences and earlier interventions may support children's comfort in nature and environmental stewardship.

For various, largely unknown reasons, decision makers do not have equal interest in all Extension and outreach topics pertinent to a particular concept. This situation hampers Extension's ability to effectively deliver information and efficiently allocate limited resources. Using survey data, we identified heterogeneous preference for various topics related to the concept of woody bioenergy, our case study subject, and built profiles of forestland owners who expressed interest in topics that received above-average and below-average preference rates. Given our results, we argue for using this approach in objectively ranking audiences' educational interests in various forest and nonforest products and services and subsequently allocating time, space, and other Extension resources to the topics of interest.

Several federal- and state-sponsored programs, including cost-sharing arrangements, tax incentives, and technical assistance programs, are available to forestland owners, aiming to encourage desired forest management practices and outcomes. However, enrollment rates in such programs are low, and trends of forestland parcelization hint at an even smaller enrollment rate in the future. Therefore, it is important to understand how socioeconomic attributes of forestland owners and past experience with such programs affect the likelihood of enrollment in public incentive programs. Among others, this will help us provide tailored information to forestland owners who are less likely to use these opportunities through extension and outreach programs. Towards this end, we conducted a survey of 1800 forestland owners in Virginia and Texas. Our recursive partitioning, logistic regression, and Cochran-Armitage trend test results suggest that forestland owners who are less likely to enroll in such programs have relatively smaller forestland acreage, a lower level of education, and shorter land ownership tenure. We also find that forestland owners with experience in public incentive programs tend to attach higher importance to potential programs, including those that do not directly benefit them. We also identify threshold values for explanatory variables such as acreage and tenure length. Key words: public incentive program, woody bioenergy, recursive partitioning, policy preference, forestland owners. Plusieurs programmes parraines par le Gouvernement federal et ceux des Etats incluant les ententes de partage des couts, les incitations fiscales, et les programmes d'assistance technique sont accessibles aux proprietaires de terrains forestiers. Ils visent a encourager des pratiques ciblees d'amenagement forestier en vue d'atteindre des resultats escomptes. Cependant, les taux d'inscription a de tels programmes sont faibles et les tendances au morcellement du territoire forestier laissent entrevoir un taux d'inscription encore plus faible dans l'avenir. Par consequent, il est important de comprendre de quelle facon les caracteristiques socioeconomiques des proprietaires de terrains forestiers et leur experience anterieure en lien avec ces programmes influencent la probabilite d'inscription a des programmes incitatifs publics. Entre autres, cela nous aidera a fournir une information pertinente aux proprietaires de terrains forestiers qui sont moins susceptibles d'avoir recours a ces opportunites par le biais des programmes de sensibilisation et de soutien technique. A cette fin, nous avons realise un sondage aupres de 1800 proprietaires de terrains forestiers en Virginie et au Texas. Les resultats que nous avons obtenus du partitionnement recursif, de la regression logistique et du test de tendance de Cochran-Armitage indiquent que les proprietaires de terrains forestiers qui sont les moins susceptibles de s'inscrire a ces programmes possedent des terrains forestiers dont la superficie est relativement plus petite, ont un niveau d'education moindre et leur statut de proprietaire foncier est plus recent. Nous avons aussi trouve que les proprietaires de terrains forestiers qui ont deja participe a des programmes incitatifs publics ont tendance a accorder une plus grande importance a d'eventuels programmes, incluant ceux dont ils ne beneficient pas directement. Nous avons aussi identifie des valeurs limites pour les variables explicatives telles que la superficie et la duree de la tenure. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles: programme incitatif public, bioenergie ligneuse, partitionnement recursif, preference en matiere de politiques, proprietaires de terrains forestiers., 1. Introduction Forests provide positive externalities, including lower soil erosion, increased carbon sequestration, water regulation, and aesthetics, for which the private forestland owner is not financially compensated. To account for [...]

Nearly 80% of the total American population lives within the urban sprawl, where rapid urbanization has contributed to an immense reduction of green space. Loss of woods, fields, and other green areas, in conjunction with adolescent preference for indoor and screen-based activities, has led to decreased time spent outdoors. However, studies show that time spent outdoors can lead to reduced rates of depression and anxiety, measurable decreases in blood pressure, and improvements in mood and confidence. With an increase in rates of anxiety seen in adolescents over the past decade, spending time in the wilderness may prove to be an accessible method of anxiety mitigation. This study uses data collected from pre-post surveys (n=41) conducted during a STEM summer day camp field trip to Stokes State Forest in northwestern New Jersey to determine how exposure to nature contributes to adolescents’ environmental perceptions and feelings of empowerment, while also addressing critical methodological gaps that exist in previous studies. Respondents, who were of ages 10-13 at the time of data collection, were asked about their previous experiences of participating in nature-based activities, feelings of being in the natural environment, and concerns about the future. Results show that after the field trip ended, students felt more optimistic about the future and that they believed more strongly that human activity damaged the environment. A regression analysis indicates positive relationships between feelings of optimism and empowerment after the day in the forest, grade, and week attended, suggesting that younger children benefitted more than older children and that their camp mentor expertise played a large influence on the campers. These results can be helpful for recognizing the value of adolescent’s nature-based experiences in improving their environmental perceptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]