Comparing Urban and Rural Perceptions of and Familiarity With the Management of Forest Ecosystems

Abstract

Forests generate market (e.g., timber) and nonmarket (e.g., wildlife) values to individuals, and multiple-use forest management involves making trade-offs between different management goals. This research uses results from six focus-groups to understand how the public perceives these trade-offs and examines differences between urban and rural groups in Michigan's Central Upper Peninsula. Results reveal differences between rural, timber-dependent and urban, non-timber-dependent participants' familiarity with forest management and ecological interactions within forests. Results support the idea that rural, timber-dependent community members are very concerned about the continued provision of both market and nonmarket forest outputs. Urban, non-timber-dependent community residents have milder concerns for sustaining multiple forest outputs but expressed strong concerns for maintaining recreational opportunities for personal uses. The results do not support the hypothesis that rural/urban views lie as expected along an anthropocentric–biocentric continuum.

Keywords:

• focus-groups
• forest management
• public perceptions
• timber dependence
• urban/rural

We thank the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, USDA National Research Initiative of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service grant MICL08292, and the Environmental Science and Policy Program at Michigan State University for research support. The authors are solely responsible for any errors.

Notes

^a p < .10.

^b p < .05.

^a Extensiveness = the number of unique individuals who made each comment.

The Mann–Whitney U-test was used to test statistical significance.

The Pearson Chi-square test was used to test statistical significance.