Shorna Allred | Cornell University (original) (raw)

Papers by Shorna Allred

International Journal of Forestry Research, 2011

Loggers play a critical role in the sustainable production of wood and paper products, and harves... more Loggers play a critical role in the sustainable production of wood and paper products, and harvesting activities contribute to economic health and viability of many Upper Midwest communities in the United States. If the logging sector is unable to procure wood efficiently and economically from an increasingly parcelized land base, the competitive ability of the forest industry could be jeopardized. Little is known about the functions of the logging sector related to the forest resource land base on which they depend, and it is imperative to improve our understanding of this important part of the forest industry. The purpose of this study was to determine prospective attitudes about the future of the logging industry and how trends in forestland parcelization and harvesting mechanization are impacting the logging industry, especially as it relates to smaller tracts of land.

Climate, 2020

Climate change has dramatically affected the rainfall patterns and water systems in Central Italy... more Climate change has dramatically affected the rainfall patterns and water systems in Central Italy. The vulnerability of this area to climate change and natural hazards necessitates that appropriate adaptation policies be put in place to protect heritage sites. This study aims to develop a cultural and natural heritage conservation framework for Central Italy that enhances the capacity of climate change adaptation for heritage resources. For this purpose, a comparison was made between the UNESCO (United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Convention of 1972 and the European Landscape Convention of the Council of Europe to achieve a coherent vision for the protection of heritage resources in Europe. After describing the impacts of climate change on heritage resources in Central Italy, we analyze and suggest improvements to the conservation framework for wisely protecting heritage resources in a changing climate. The findings reveal that conservation sectors require assessments of the value of heritage resources at the territorial scale to effectively define conservation priorities, assess the vulnerabilities, and more precisely direct funding. In this respect, the integration of the European Landscape Convention with territorial planning may boost the unity of a conservation framework in terms of climate change while providing new opportunities for conservation authorities to develop adaptation policies.

Landowner typologies help researchers and practitioners understand similarities and differences a... more Landowner typologies help researchers and practitioners understand similarities and differences among landowners, allowing more targeted education and communications. These typologies have rarely been rigorously assessed before recommended for use. We assessed three typologies created with one data set using three methods: reliability through split halves, predictive validity using external variables, and application of quality typology criteria. We conducted the work using a New York State landowner survey data set about early successional habitat management behavior. According to the assessment, none of the three typologies stood out as clearly the best-each had its strengths and weaknesses. The assessment provided a more complete understanding of different approaches and will allow researchers to be more informed when they select a typology to use to inform education and communications.

Natural resource professionals, ranging from forest managers and educators to floodplain managers... more Natural resource professionals, ranging from forest managers and educators to floodplain managers, play a critical role in implementing and conducting outreach with regards to climate mitigation and adaptation appropriate to local and regional scales. Natural resource professionals can also pave the way by adopting actions that serve as demonstrations of efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions or adapt natural systems for the future. A web survey of 1488 natural resource professionals across New York State (NYS) was conducted to assess their attitudes toward climate change, views toward climate change mitigation and adaptation priorities, actions taken to address climate change, and barriers faced as they relate to their professional responsibilities. The majority of natural resource professionals believe that climate change is happening, but there was slightly less agreement about human causes of climate change. Most natural resource professionals (69%) see evidence of how climate change is impacting natural resources in NYS, but few (17%) believed that there was sufficient information about how to address climate impacts at the local level. Nearly 60% of natural resources professionals undertook climate mitigation or adaptation actions in their work. Prominent influencing factors for action were proactive leadership and local impacts. Barriers to taking action on climate change were a lack of human and financial resources, the nature of costs relative to benefits, and lack of perceived threat. As managers and educators responsible for local water, land, and wildlife resources, natural resource professionals witness changes resulting from climate change first-hand. This paper will be useful to decision-makers at state and federal government levels regarding policies, incentives, and guidance that can be created with the goal of promoting a sound natural resource strategy in support of climate change readiness.

Street trees provide numerous environmental, community, and health benefits, but municipal urban ... more Street trees provide numerous environmental, community, and health benefits, but municipal urban forestry programs often lack the public resources to adequately maintain trees, particularly in the time immediately following planting. Watering trees in the first three years after planting is critical for tree survival. A quasi-experimental design was used to test whether an outreach intervention impacted residents' street tree watering behavior, and whether their watering behavior enhanced soil moisture, an important outcome for tree growth. Residents at mailing addresses for trees in the treatment group received educational materials about watering, while the control group received no educational materials. Soil moisture data was collected weekly at every tree throughout the growing season (May-September 2012) and used as a proxy for residents' watering behavior. Results indicate that the postcards had a positive impact on residents' watering behavior, but that the impact diminished over time. While the impact of the postcards on soil moisture was not statistically significant, the evaluation of the outreach intervention has practical significance for future educational efforts to engage residents in street tree watering.

Jonathan Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory identifies five moral axes that can influence human mot... more Jonathan Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory identifies five moral axes that can influence human motivation to take action on vital problems like climate change. The theory focuses on five moral foundations, including compassion, fairness, purity, authority, and ingroup loyalty; these have been found to differ between liberals and conservatives as well as Democrats and Republicans. Here we show, based on the Cornell National Social Survey (USA), that valuations of compassion and fairness were strong, positive predictors of willingness to act on climate change, whereas purity had a non-significant tendency in the positive direction (p = 0.07). Ingroup loyalty and authority were not supported as important predictor variables using model selection (DAICc). Compassion and fairness were more highly valued by liberals, whereas purity, authority, and in-group loyalty were more highly valued by conservatives. As in previous studies, participants who were younger, more liberal, and reported greater belief in climate change, also showed increased willingness to act on climate change. Our research supports the potential importance of moral foundations as drivers of intentions with respect to climate change action, and suggests that compassion, fairness, and to a lesser extent, purity, are potential moral pathways for personal action on climate change in the USA.

Cross-disciplinary research is necessary to solve many complex problems that affect society today... more Cross-disciplinary research is necessary to solve many complex problems that affect society today, including problems involving linked social and environmental systems. Examples include natural resource management or scarcity problems, problematic effects of climate change, and environmental pollution issues. Intercultural research teams are needed to address many complex environmental matters as they often cross geographic and political boundaries, and involve people of different countries and cultures. It follows that disciplinarily and culturally diverse research teams have been organized to investigate and address environmental issues. This case study investigates a team composed of both monolingual and bilingual Chilean and US university researchers who are geoscientists, engineers and economists. The objective of this research team was to study both the natural and human parts of a hydrologic system in a hyper-arid region in northern Chile. Interviews (n = 8) addressed research questions focusing on the interaction of cross-disciplinary diversity and cultural diversity during group integration and development within the team. The case study revealed that the group struggled more with cross-disciplinary challenges than with intercultural ones. Particularly challenging ones were instances the of disciplinary crosstalk, or hidden misunderstandings, where team members thought they understood their crossdisciplinary colleagues, when in reality they did not. Results showed that translation served as a facilitator to crossdisciplinary integration of the research team. The use of translation in group meetings as a strategy for effective cross-disciplinary integration can be extended to monolingual cross-disciplinary teams as well.

Forest management practices on public forests are controversial with many organizational and indi... more Forest management practices on public forests are controversial with many organizational and individual stakeholders. Forest managers' understanding of the attitudes of stakeholders is necessary to honor statutory requirements and the social contract under which they operate. The human dimension component of the Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment (HEE) in Indiana included a study of recreationists' and neighboring landowners' forest management attitudes by examining the acceptability of alternative management practices on Morgan-Monroe State Forest (MMSF) before and after providing brief explanations of alternative management practices. An on-site survey of recreationists and a mail survey of landowners neighboring MMSF were used. Both surveys also included an investigation of the influence of information about timber management practices on respondents' attitudes.

Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to agricultural production globally and in the Unit... more Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to agricultural production globally and in the United States; it is both vulnerable to the impacts of a changing climate and a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Because farmers need to quickly adapt to reduce their risks and emissions, there is a pressing need to better understand the process by which they make decisions. This complex decision-making process includes many factors, such as farmers' beliefs; knowledge and capacity to make changes; the information they receive from Extension, industry, and social networks (e.g., family and peers); economics and regulations; and farm-scale and environmental issues (including personal experience with extreme weather). This study assesses the published literature on U.S. agricultural stakeholder views and decisions on climate change, focusing on farmers and ranchers from different regions. We identify key themes that emerge from the literature on how stakeholder views about extreme weather and climate change relate to decisions about adaptation and mitigation practices. This review finds that although the majority of U.S. farmers believe the climate is changing, many remain skeptical of the issue and uncertain about the anthropogenic causes of climate change. Farmers' climate change mitigation and adaptation decisions also vary widely and are often correlated with belief or other factors such as personal experience with extreme weather, costs of change, or fear of regulation. We conclude with the implications of the research, including the importance of understanding farmers' view and actions and issue framing, and implications for researchers, Extension and policy makers, both nationally and globally.

Forested lands produce a multitude of societal benefits, and landowner decisions influence the pr... more Forested lands produce a multitude of societal benefits, and landowner decisions influence the provision of these benefits over space and time. The fate of over half of the 330 million hectares of forestland in the United States (U.S.) rests in the hands of private ownerships, and over 35% of U.S. forestland is owned by families. Landowner estate planning offers a means for families to make critical decisions about the future stewardship of their land, including whether and how to split up lands or to take steps to ensure lands remain forested. Yet, decisionmaking regarding ownership transition and formal estate planning remains poorly understood. Our research provides foundational knowledge of the current status of family landowners' formal estate planning in four northeastern U.S. states. Using a mail survey in Massachusetts, Maine, New York and Vermont, we compiled information on owners' current management, future intentions, estate planning, and demographics. Approximately 66% of respondents have made use of a will for estate planning; 25% have combined the use of a will with a tool that may control use; and 34% have not employed any formal planning tools. Findings from a multinomial logit model of estate planning actions suggest that landowner and land characteristics, barriers to the planning process, and intentions to pass to heirs, recreational and financial investment objectives, and landscape area differences explain variation in the extent and type of planning by owners. Our results underscore the importance of additional research on estate planning, including the conservation intent of these plans, and offer guidance to practitioners interested in bolstering engagement with these planning tools.

Climate change has serious implications for agricultural production, natural resource management,... more Climate change has serious implications for agricultural production, natural resource management, and food security. In the United States, land-grant universities and the U.S. Cooperative Extension System have a critical role to play in conducting basic and applied research related to climate change and translating findings into meaningful programming. However, land-grant universities and Extension have had difficulty maintaining their roles as the preeminent source of trusted information on complex topics like climate change. To help guide research and programming agendas of land-grant universities, the authors explored the barriers and priorities that researchers and Extension personnel at 16 northeastern land-grant universities perceive as they pursue climate change research and programming. Through an online survey, respondents indicated their perceptions of barriers related to information, workplace, and target audiences as well as the priorities they perceived as most important for land-grant universities to pursue. Statistical analysis indicated that lack of funding, lack of time, lack of locally relevant climate information, and challenges with target audiences were among the most critical barriers. In terms of future priorities, respondents indicated securing funding for applied research, training Extension educators, and developing locally relevant decision support tools as the most important activities northeastern land-grant universities can undertake. Based on these findings, this study concludes that land-grant universities will need to strategically pursue research and educational programming on climate change in ways that integrate research and Extension and simultaneously address climate change and other concerns of land managers.

Resilience to extreme weather events and other sudden changes is an issue facing many communities... more Resilience to extreme weather events and other sudden changes is an issue facing many communities in the early twenty-first century. Planning to respond to disasters is particularly complicated in densely inhabited, multijurisdictional urban social-ecological systems like the watershed of Jamaica Bay, a large urbanized estuary on the south side of New York City. This area contains parklands managed by New York City, the National Park Service, and other agencies, four sewage treatment plants, three former landfills, and urban and suburban communities, all of which were heavily impacted by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Here successful resilience planning and response requires participation from a wide variety of government and civil society players each with different types of knowledge, value systems, and expectations about what resilience means. To investigate how Bvisions^of future resilience differed among several communities living in or concerned with Jamaica Bay, New York, we deployed a free, Internet-based modeling framework called Visionmaker that enabled interactive scenario creation and testing. Through a series of standardized workshops, we recruited participants from a variety of different communities of practice (i.e. researchers, land managers, educators, non-governmental organization staff, and community board members) to design Bvisions of resilience^. Visions spanned terrestrial and marine environments and contained natural and built ecosystems. Most users favored increasing resilience through expanding salt marsh and green infrastructure while, for the most part, keeping the built city landscape of streets and buildings intact. We compare and contrast these visions and discuss the implications for future resilience planning in coastal cities.

Extension is responding to climate change through programming intended to encourage adaptation an... more Extension is responding to climate change through programming intended to encourage adaptation and mitigation in agricultural production and natural resources management. However, effectively engaging target audiences requires identifying appropriate delivery methods. We conducted a study to identify delivery methods researchers and Extension professionals at landgrant universities in the northeastern United States perceive as useful for climate change outreach. Respondents viewed all delivery methods as only slightly useful, though traditional options, including facetoface interactions and the use of videos and websites, were perceived as slightly more useful than other delivery methods. Therefore, we in Extension must experiment with various delivery methods to identify those most likely to effect the adoption of adaptation and mitigation practices.

International Journal of Forestry Research, 2011

Loggers play a critical role in the sustainable production of wood and paper products, and harves... more Loggers play a critical role in the sustainable production of wood and paper products, and harvesting activities contribute to economic health and viability of many Upper Midwest communities in the United States. If the logging sector is unable to procure wood efficiently and economically from an increasingly parcelized land base, the competitive ability of the forest industry could be jeopardized. Little is known about the functions of the logging sector related to the forest resource land base on which they depend, and it is imperative to improve our understanding of this important part of the forest industry. The purpose of this study was to determine prospective attitudes about the future of the logging industry and how trends in forestland parcelization and harvesting mechanization are impacting the logging industry, especially as it relates to smaller tracts of land.

Climate, 2020

Climate change has dramatically affected the rainfall patterns and water systems in Central Italy... more Climate change has dramatically affected the rainfall patterns and water systems in Central Italy. The vulnerability of this area to climate change and natural hazards necessitates that appropriate adaptation policies be put in place to protect heritage sites. This study aims to develop a cultural and natural heritage conservation framework for Central Italy that enhances the capacity of climate change adaptation for heritage resources. For this purpose, a comparison was made between the UNESCO (United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Convention of 1972 and the European Landscape Convention of the Council of Europe to achieve a coherent vision for the protection of heritage resources in Europe. After describing the impacts of climate change on heritage resources in Central Italy, we analyze and suggest improvements to the conservation framework for wisely protecting heritage resources in a changing climate. The findings reveal that conservation sectors require assessments of the value of heritage resources at the territorial scale to effectively define conservation priorities, assess the vulnerabilities, and more precisely direct funding. In this respect, the integration of the European Landscape Convention with territorial planning may boost the unity of a conservation framework in terms of climate change while providing new opportunities for conservation authorities to develop adaptation policies.

Landowner typologies help researchers and practitioners understand similarities and differences a... more Landowner typologies help researchers and practitioners understand similarities and differences among landowners, allowing more targeted education and communications. These typologies have rarely been rigorously assessed before recommended for use. We assessed three typologies created with one data set using three methods: reliability through split halves, predictive validity using external variables, and application of quality typology criteria. We conducted the work using a New York State landowner survey data set about early successional habitat management behavior. According to the assessment, none of the three typologies stood out as clearly the best-each had its strengths and weaknesses. The assessment provided a more complete understanding of different approaches and will allow researchers to be more informed when they select a typology to use to inform education and communications.

Natural resource professionals, ranging from forest managers and educators to floodplain managers... more Natural resource professionals, ranging from forest managers and educators to floodplain managers, play a critical role in implementing and conducting outreach with regards to climate mitigation and adaptation appropriate to local and regional scales. Natural resource professionals can also pave the way by adopting actions that serve as demonstrations of efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions or adapt natural systems for the future. A web survey of 1488 natural resource professionals across New York State (NYS) was conducted to assess their attitudes toward climate change, views toward climate change mitigation and adaptation priorities, actions taken to address climate change, and barriers faced as they relate to their professional responsibilities. The majority of natural resource professionals believe that climate change is happening, but there was slightly less agreement about human causes of climate change. Most natural resource professionals (69%) see evidence of how climate change is impacting natural resources in NYS, but few (17%) believed that there was sufficient information about how to address climate impacts at the local level. Nearly 60% of natural resources professionals undertook climate mitigation or adaptation actions in their work. Prominent influencing factors for action were proactive leadership and local impacts. Barriers to taking action on climate change were a lack of human and financial resources, the nature of costs relative to benefits, and lack of perceived threat. As managers and educators responsible for local water, land, and wildlife resources, natural resource professionals witness changes resulting from climate change first-hand. This paper will be useful to decision-makers at state and federal government levels regarding policies, incentives, and guidance that can be created with the goal of promoting a sound natural resource strategy in support of climate change readiness.

Street trees provide numerous environmental, community, and health benefits, but municipal urban ... more Street trees provide numerous environmental, community, and health benefits, but municipal urban forestry programs often lack the public resources to adequately maintain trees, particularly in the time immediately following planting. Watering trees in the first three years after planting is critical for tree survival. A quasi-experimental design was used to test whether an outreach intervention impacted residents' street tree watering behavior, and whether their watering behavior enhanced soil moisture, an important outcome for tree growth. Residents at mailing addresses for trees in the treatment group received educational materials about watering, while the control group received no educational materials. Soil moisture data was collected weekly at every tree throughout the growing season (May-September 2012) and used as a proxy for residents' watering behavior. Results indicate that the postcards had a positive impact on residents' watering behavior, but that the impact diminished over time. While the impact of the postcards on soil moisture was not statistically significant, the evaluation of the outreach intervention has practical significance for future educational efforts to engage residents in street tree watering.

Jonathan Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory identifies five moral axes that can influence human mot... more Jonathan Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory identifies five moral axes that can influence human motivation to take action on vital problems like climate change. The theory focuses on five moral foundations, including compassion, fairness, purity, authority, and ingroup loyalty; these have been found to differ between liberals and conservatives as well as Democrats and Republicans. Here we show, based on the Cornell National Social Survey (USA), that valuations of compassion and fairness were strong, positive predictors of willingness to act on climate change, whereas purity had a non-significant tendency in the positive direction (p = 0.07). Ingroup loyalty and authority were not supported as important predictor variables using model selection (DAICc). Compassion and fairness were more highly valued by liberals, whereas purity, authority, and in-group loyalty were more highly valued by conservatives. As in previous studies, participants who were younger, more liberal, and reported greater belief in climate change, also showed increased willingness to act on climate change. Our research supports the potential importance of moral foundations as drivers of intentions with respect to climate change action, and suggests that compassion, fairness, and to a lesser extent, purity, are potential moral pathways for personal action on climate change in the USA.

Cross-disciplinary research is necessary to solve many complex problems that affect society today... more Cross-disciplinary research is necessary to solve many complex problems that affect society today, including problems involving linked social and environmental systems. Examples include natural resource management or scarcity problems, problematic effects of climate change, and environmental pollution issues. Intercultural research teams are needed to address many complex environmental matters as they often cross geographic and political boundaries, and involve people of different countries and cultures. It follows that disciplinarily and culturally diverse research teams have been organized to investigate and address environmental issues. This case study investigates a team composed of both monolingual and bilingual Chilean and US university researchers who are geoscientists, engineers and economists. The objective of this research team was to study both the natural and human parts of a hydrologic system in a hyper-arid region in northern Chile. Interviews (n = 8) addressed research questions focusing on the interaction of cross-disciplinary diversity and cultural diversity during group integration and development within the team. The case study revealed that the group struggled more with cross-disciplinary challenges than with intercultural ones. Particularly challenging ones were instances the of disciplinary crosstalk, or hidden misunderstandings, where team members thought they understood their crossdisciplinary colleagues, when in reality they did not. Results showed that translation served as a facilitator to crossdisciplinary integration of the research team. The use of translation in group meetings as a strategy for effective cross-disciplinary integration can be extended to monolingual cross-disciplinary teams as well.

Forest management practices on public forests are controversial with many organizational and indi... more Forest management practices on public forests are controversial with many organizational and individual stakeholders. Forest managers' understanding of the attitudes of stakeholders is necessary to honor statutory requirements and the social contract under which they operate. The human dimension component of the Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment (HEE) in Indiana included a study of recreationists' and neighboring landowners' forest management attitudes by examining the acceptability of alternative management practices on Morgan-Monroe State Forest (MMSF) before and after providing brief explanations of alternative management practices. An on-site survey of recreationists and a mail survey of landowners neighboring MMSF were used. Both surveys also included an investigation of the influence of information about timber management practices on respondents' attitudes.

Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to agricultural production globally and in the Unit... more Climate change poses unprecedented challenges to agricultural production globally and in the United States; it is both vulnerable to the impacts of a changing climate and a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Because farmers need to quickly adapt to reduce their risks and emissions, there is a pressing need to better understand the process by which they make decisions. This complex decision-making process includes many factors, such as farmers' beliefs; knowledge and capacity to make changes; the information they receive from Extension, industry, and social networks (e.g., family and peers); economics and regulations; and farm-scale and environmental issues (including personal experience with extreme weather). This study assesses the published literature on U.S. agricultural stakeholder views and decisions on climate change, focusing on farmers and ranchers from different regions. We identify key themes that emerge from the literature on how stakeholder views about extreme weather and climate change relate to decisions about adaptation and mitigation practices. This review finds that although the majority of U.S. farmers believe the climate is changing, many remain skeptical of the issue and uncertain about the anthropogenic causes of climate change. Farmers' climate change mitigation and adaptation decisions also vary widely and are often correlated with belief or other factors such as personal experience with extreme weather, costs of change, or fear of regulation. We conclude with the implications of the research, including the importance of understanding farmers' view and actions and issue framing, and implications for researchers, Extension and policy makers, both nationally and globally.

Forested lands produce a multitude of societal benefits, and landowner decisions influence the pr... more Forested lands produce a multitude of societal benefits, and landowner decisions influence the provision of these benefits over space and time. The fate of over half of the 330 million hectares of forestland in the United States (U.S.) rests in the hands of private ownerships, and over 35% of U.S. forestland is owned by families. Landowner estate planning offers a means for families to make critical decisions about the future stewardship of their land, including whether and how to split up lands or to take steps to ensure lands remain forested. Yet, decisionmaking regarding ownership transition and formal estate planning remains poorly understood. Our research provides foundational knowledge of the current status of family landowners' formal estate planning in four northeastern U.S. states. Using a mail survey in Massachusetts, Maine, New York and Vermont, we compiled information on owners' current management, future intentions, estate planning, and demographics. Approximately 66% of respondents have made use of a will for estate planning; 25% have combined the use of a will with a tool that may control use; and 34% have not employed any formal planning tools. Findings from a multinomial logit model of estate planning actions suggest that landowner and land characteristics, barriers to the planning process, and intentions to pass to heirs, recreational and financial investment objectives, and landscape area differences explain variation in the extent and type of planning by owners. Our results underscore the importance of additional research on estate planning, including the conservation intent of these plans, and offer guidance to practitioners interested in bolstering engagement with these planning tools.

Climate change has serious implications for agricultural production, natural resource management,... more Climate change has serious implications for agricultural production, natural resource management, and food security. In the United States, land-grant universities and the U.S. Cooperative Extension System have a critical role to play in conducting basic and applied research related to climate change and translating findings into meaningful programming. However, land-grant universities and Extension have had difficulty maintaining their roles as the preeminent source of trusted information on complex topics like climate change. To help guide research and programming agendas of land-grant universities, the authors explored the barriers and priorities that researchers and Extension personnel at 16 northeastern land-grant universities perceive as they pursue climate change research and programming. Through an online survey, respondents indicated their perceptions of barriers related to information, workplace, and target audiences as well as the priorities they perceived as most important for land-grant universities to pursue. Statistical analysis indicated that lack of funding, lack of time, lack of locally relevant climate information, and challenges with target audiences were among the most critical barriers. In terms of future priorities, respondents indicated securing funding for applied research, training Extension educators, and developing locally relevant decision support tools as the most important activities northeastern land-grant universities can undertake. Based on these findings, this study concludes that land-grant universities will need to strategically pursue research and educational programming on climate change in ways that integrate research and Extension and simultaneously address climate change and other concerns of land managers.

Resilience to extreme weather events and other sudden changes is an issue facing many communities... more Resilience to extreme weather events and other sudden changes is an issue facing many communities in the early twenty-first century. Planning to respond to disasters is particularly complicated in densely inhabited, multijurisdictional urban social-ecological systems like the watershed of Jamaica Bay, a large urbanized estuary on the south side of New York City. This area contains parklands managed by New York City, the National Park Service, and other agencies, four sewage treatment plants, three former landfills, and urban and suburban communities, all of which were heavily impacted by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Here successful resilience planning and response requires participation from a wide variety of government and civil society players each with different types of knowledge, value systems, and expectations about what resilience means. To investigate how Bvisions^of future resilience differed among several communities living in or concerned with Jamaica Bay, New York, we deployed a free, Internet-based modeling framework called Visionmaker that enabled interactive scenario creation and testing. Through a series of standardized workshops, we recruited participants from a variety of different communities of practice (i.e. researchers, land managers, educators, non-governmental organization staff, and community board members) to design Bvisions of resilience^. Visions spanned terrestrial and marine environments and contained natural and built ecosystems. Most users favored increasing resilience through expanding salt marsh and green infrastructure while, for the most part, keeping the built city landscape of streets and buildings intact. We compare and contrast these visions and discuss the implications for future resilience planning in coastal cities.

Extension is responding to climate change through programming intended to encourage adaptation an... more Extension is responding to climate change through programming intended to encourage adaptation and mitigation in agricultural production and natural resources management. However, effectively engaging target audiences requires identifying appropriate delivery methods. We conducted a study to identify delivery methods researchers and Extension professionals at landgrant universities in the northeastern United States perceive as useful for climate change outreach. Respondents viewed all delivery methods as only slightly useful, though traditional options, including facetoface interactions and the use of videos and websites, were perceived as slightly more useful than other delivery methods. Therefore, we in Extension must experiment with various delivery methods to identify those most likely to effect the adoption of adaptation and mitigation practices.