COS 22-1 - Action is needed, but what kind? Conflicting preferences for managing anthropogenic pressures in sagebrush steppe

Abstract: Changes in the public’s relationship with land management agencies have prompted increased research on public preferences for the use and management of landscapes to better inform decision-making processes. Management preferences may vary by situation and context, and a lack of public support can lead to the failure of management decisions. However, integrating public preferences into conservation and management practices and policies has proven challenging. Working landscapes undergoing social and ecological changes, such as the sagebrush steppe of Idaho, provide a useful case study for assessing attitudes toward the variety of management policies and strategies to address change. Population expansion, migration, and land use change are altering both the physical and social landscapes of Idaho’s sagebrush steppe, which is susceptible to degradation from these changes, especially when coupled with the impacts of interconnected ecological threats. We aimed to (1) estimate county-level opinion on sagebrush steppe management in three contexts (general, recreation, and residential development), (2) assess the patterns in management preferences, and (3) evaluate the potential for conflict should those management strategies be implemented. We used a phone and web-based survey (n = 1,048) to measure attitudes toward recreation and residential development governance in Idaho’s sagebrush steppe. We combined social and ecological predictors using multilevel regression and poststratification to produce county-level estimates for management attitudes toward five strategies in each context in order to assess the acceptance of different management strategies at a regional scale and potential for conflict for each strategy. We found that collaboration was the most strongly accepted strategy to manage recreation and residential development; however, there were higher degrees of conflict and differing levels of acceptability for establishing new areas, providing financial support, and enforcing existing rules and regulations. Additionally, we found familiarity with and personal importance of sagebrush steppe to be influential for management attitudes. By understanding who holds what attitudes and where, we can better inform decision-making for these imperiled landscapes undergoing social-ecological changes at locally relevant scales.