Time and Distance: Comparing Motivations Among Forest Landowners in New England, USA

Parcelization and shifting landownership are critical forces reshaping forested ecosystems in the USA and elsewhere. These forces create a mosaic of new and long-time landowners as well as differences in residency. Using survey data (n = 879) of landowners in Massachusetts and Vermont, USA, we begin the process of sorting out time (i.e., length of landownership) and distance (i.e., distance of primary residence from forest holding), and their relationships to motivations for continued landownership and management. Both time and distance, and their interaction were significant in explaining three motivations for landownership: enjoyment, production, and protection as well as the number of neighbors with which respondents were acquainted. Distance is the statistically more important factor—negatively related to all dependent variables, but time and its interaction with distance offer the more useful insights for intervention.

Heterogeneous preferences for social trail use in the urban forest: A latent class model

This study explored visitors’ preferences for social conditions of trail use in urban forests. It is important to understand the heterogeneous nature of visitor preferences because the recreational use of urban forests is characterized by multipurpose uses with different visiting motivations. To understand preference heterogeneity, this study used a discrete choice experiment using a latent class model that incorporated motivational and sociodemographic factors as membership likelihood function. In 2006, 256 visitors to the Nopporo Forest Park, Hokkaido, in northern Japan, completed questionnaires with a series of discrete choice tasks using computer-manipulated images presenting various social conditions of trail use, such as visitor numbers and harvesting behavior on wild food plants. The study identified two visitor groups. One group consisted of more elders whose motivation was to enjoy the natural environment. Although they tended to tolerate crowded conditions, they particularly disliked plant pickers, who harvest wild vegetables alongside the trail. The other group was less tolerant of crowds, and enjoying the natural environment was not their primary purpose for visiting the park. These visitors especially disliked excessive numbers of visitors, but they did not dislike plant pickers. These results suggest that traditional park management assumptions about typical visitors poorly serve the heterogeneous nature of the visitor population.     

What motivations drive foreign gardeners to cultivate? Findings from urban gardening initiatives in Lombard municipalities

This paper examines the motivations that drive foreign gardeners to cultivate a garden in Lombard municipalities.Motivations underlying urban gardening are inspired by social, health, environmental and food-related benefits. Several studies document these benefits with reference to the entire population of gardeners, while ignoring the specific perspective of each social subgroup, mainly because of a lack of data. This scarce knowledge is particularly evident for the subset of foreign gardeners, i.e., migrants moving to Italy for work and/or family reasons who decide to cultivate an urban garden in the municipality of their residence. In turn, this prevents municipalities from adopting urban gardening projects that are consistent with the specific requirements of this group.As the regional government has legally recognized the importance of urban gardens and financed their realization, the Lombard municipalities have promoted many of these practices in their territories over recent years. However, neither the region nor the municipalities have created a database of these practices or collected information on the motivations that lead people in general – and foreign citizens in particular – to cultivate locally.This paper aims to fill that gap by presenting some results gained from the elaboration of two questionnaires sent to both the municipalities and the gardeners themselves.Findings indicate that about 21 % of the responding municipalities promote urban gardening initiatives. Of these municipalities, less than one in five have at least one foreign gardener. Foreign gardeners come mainly from North Africa and Eastern Europe, most of them are over 40 years old, and have usually lived with their families in Lombard municipalities for more than five years. Their motivations consist of a growing interest in participation in local communities, breaching multiple relationships and enforcing participation. Conversely, they attribute little importance to sharing values and strengthening personal and social identities, or to preserving the social ecological memory of ancient practices. Finally, they frequently highlight the contribution of garden cultivation in reducing pollution and in reconnection with food practices, making access to good food a priority.