Water management involves the provision of water uses and benefits for people and communities, with direct environmental justice implications. Beyond water supply for physiological survival, people depend on water systems for material and non-material values. Understanding how different communities value water and prioritize its protection is critical to effective water governance. We use a psychometric water values scale administered through two survey research study designs to explore how socially and culturally diverse Minnesota residents value water. While some values are universally shared (e.g., safe drinking water), other values and priorities vary by sociocultural identities. Survey results reveal how race, ethnicity, and gender identities are associated with different water values and priorities. We conclude that water science and policy need more inclusive understanding and representation of the diversity of water relationships, experiences, and values across the state.

Climate change will impact nature-based tourism communities by altering weather patterns and influencing the supply of outdoor recreation resources. Visitors to these such destinations respond through recreation substitution, altering when, where, and how they participate in outdoor pursuits. Understanding predictors of recreation substitution is important for destinations considering how to best adapt to climate change. Using visitor-intercept data (n = 1,398) we explored different visitor segments' intent to utilize recreation substitution in response to changing environmental conditions. Visitor segments characterized by low trip anticipation or a long travel distance were most likely to cancel their trips or travel elsewhere in pursuit of ideal recreation conditions. Spatial substitution was lower among visitors with higher degrees of destination loyalty, highlighting the value of communication strategies that foster connections to place. Targeted marketing to retain visitor segments likely to cancel trips, may minimize negative impacts of climate change on travel behavior.

This study examines the determinants of resident engagement in climate change using a survey of a sample of residents in Lake Superior's North Shore region in Minnesota. We examine the influence of climate concern, responsibility, subjective norms and personal norms on civic engagement. Study findings indicate that climate concern, ascription of local responsibility, and subjective norms influence residents' personal norms, or sense of personal obligation, which in turn positively predicts civic engagement. Study findings highlight the importance of norms as a motivator of climate-related engagement. Results point to the potential for engaging community members in climate-related activities by tapping feelings of personal obligation for climate change adaptation or mitigation.

This study examines the social-psychological drivers of conservation action among landowners in Minnesota. In particular, we apply an integrated norm activation theory to understand landowner conservation behavior. Data were collected through a self-administered mail survey of 3,000 landowners in La Crescent and Reno Watersheds in Southeastern Minnesota and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Study findings show that landowners' conservation action is driven by their feelings of personal obligation, and beliefs about whether one is capable of taking actions to influence outcomes (i.e., self-efficacy). Landowners who feel a sense of personal obligation and believe that their actions can make a difference are more likely to take conservation actions. Further, landowners who believe it is their personal responsibility to protect water and perceive social expectations are more likely to develop feelings of personal obligation. Importantly, this study highlights the role of self-efficacy as an activator of personal norm, as well as a driver of conservation behavior. Our study suggests that strategies that appeal to landowners' sense of personal responsibility and self-expectations, promote conservation action as a social norm, and build landowners' self-efficacy or confidence in their ability to make a difference, are likely to be successful.

Anticipatory water planning must address not only future climatic conditions but also the experiential dimensions of risk that drive human and societal adaptation. Compared to the western USA, agricultural producers in the upper Corn Belt have had less exposure to extreme drought and less irrigated agriculture. If climate change threatens to increase drought frequency or severity in the Corn Belt, a transition from rain-fed agriculture to irrigated agriculture in this region would require systemic changes and significant financial investments. Knowing what drives drought risk perceptions and irrigation behaviors will inform anticipatory planning and water supply management. We surveyed central Minnesota farmers about their drought risk perceptions in two groundwater management areas where climate models project heightened variability in water supply during the growing season. We examined the influence of farmers’ drought exposure beliefs, farm sensitivity appraisals, and drought risk perceptions on future irrigation behaviors. We presented farmers with experiential scenarios of future drought derived from downscaled climate projections and asked about their likelihood of adopting or expanding irrigation systems under those conditions. Findings indicate that many farmers surveyed are concerned about drought, in part because they believe that future droughts are likely in the area and their farms are sensitive to drought. More than one quarter of farmers reported being likely to adopt or expand irrigation under several drought-experience scenarios.

This study examines the social-psychological determinants of climate-related civic engagement among residents of Lake Superior’s nature-based, tourism-dependent North Shore region in Minnesota. Specifically, it assesses the influence of two dimensions of community attachment (social and environmental) and environmental concern on civic engagement. Data were collected using a self-administered mail survey of 1000 residents in the two Lake Superior watersheds that constitute the majority of the North Shore region. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings indicate that residents’ social attachment to their communities is a significant predictor of their climate-related civic engagement. Further, their environmental attachment—while not by itself a predictor--is significantly related to heightened concern about the impacts of climate change on the local environment, which is a significant predictor of residents’ civic engagement. These findings reinforce a two-dimensional understanding of community attachment and they are pertinent for natural resource professionals and community leaders tasked with engaging residents in climate-mitigating or –adaptive actions. They suggest that programmatic outcomes may be enhanced by accentuating the local social and economic consequences of climate change, and the impacts to local natural resources. This may be especially valuable in nature tourism-based economies where altered climatic conditions could more drastically impact the economic well-being of communities.

Managing wildlife in landscapes under private ownership requires partnership between landowners, resource users, and governing agencies. Agencies often call on landowners to voluntarily change their practices to achieve collective goals. Landowner support for management action is partially a function of normative beliefs about managing wildlife. Understanding factors that support development of normative beliefs is important for program design, with implications beyond deer. Drawing on norm activation theory, identity theory, and community attachment, we hypothesized that landowners’ ascription of responsibility to manage deer were a function of their identity as a wildlife steward and attachment to their community. We tested our hypotheses using structural equation modeling with data from a survey of southeast Minnesota landowners. Results revealed ascribed responsibility to be a function of identity. In turn, identity was predicted by affect toward the community. Findings suggest community-based approaches to wildlife management could improve goal achievement.

Anticipatory water management must reflect not only future climatic conditions, but also the social and psychological dimensions of vulnerability that drive adaptation. Compared to the western U.S., farmers in the upper Corn Belt have had less exposure to extreme drought and have lower rates of irrigation adoption. If climate change threatens to increase drought frequency or severity in the Corn Belt, transitioning from rain-fed agriculture to irrigated agriculture would require systemic changes and significant financial investments. Knowing what drives perceptions and feelings of drought vulnerability will improve understanding and anticipation of farmer adaptation behaviors such as irrigation. We surveyed central Minnesota agricultural producers about their perceptions of water scarcity in two groundwater management areas where climate models show heightened variability in water supply during the growing season. We examined the influence of farmer beliefs about climate change, drought risk, farm sensitivity to drought, and adaptation capacity. We presented farmers with scenarios of drought severity derived from downscaled climate projections and asked farmers about their likelihood of adopting irrigation technologies or expanding irrigation extent. Findings indicate that many farmers feel vulnerable to climate and drought-related impacts, in part because they believe water scarcity is an imminent problem. Farmers believe humans are at least partially responsible for climate change, near-term droughts are likely, and their farms are particularly sensitive to drought stress.

Manoomin, the Ojibwe word for wild rice, grows in shallow lakes and streams and provides physical, spiritual, and cultural sustenance as a sacred food and relative for Indigenous peoples across the Great Lakes region of North America. Unfortunately, Manoomin has been declining due to multiple environmental stressors. In 2018, an interdisciplinary group from the University of Minnesota came together with natural resource managers from tribes and inter-tribal organizations to understand Manoomin within its socio-environmental context. This partnership grew despite a history fraught with settler colonial structures of knowledge production and commodification. Based on lessons learned from building this transformational partnership, this paper describes ten tenets for responsible research: 1) Honor Indigenous sovereignty and rights; 2) Address past and present harms; 3) Be on the path together with researchers and Indigenous partners; 4) Recognize, respect, and value Indigenous participation and intellectual labor; 5) Encourage the robust exchange of ideas; 6) Recognize that documents formalizing a relationship are not the whole relationship; 7) Make a plan for identifying and protecting sensitive Indigenous data; 8) Be prepared to navigate institutional obstacles; 9) Seek, support, and collaborate with diverse students; and 10) Actively listen and be open to different ways of engaging with the world. These lessons can serve as tools to form accountable partnerships that enable robust, nuanced, and effective environmental science, policy, and stewardship.

Climate change is affecting human and geophysical systems in a variety of complex and interdependent ways. For nature-based tourism-dependent communities like those along the North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota, impacts to the region’s abundant natural resources can subsequently affect the livelihoods of individuals who depend upon those resources to provide essential ecosystem services and support the region’s economy. Many of the area’s natural and outdoor recreation resources are collaboratively managed, making cooperation essential to address climate change impacts. In this study, we engaged North Shore stakeholders in a climate change risk assessment process through an exploratory application of participatory geographic information systems (PGIS). Stakeholder involvement allows for the co-production of science to deliver locally-relevant data and information. Involving stakeholders through a PGIS-based climate change risk assessment process allows locally-relevant data and information to be represented and visualized spatially. We used PGIS focus groups, as well as pre- and post-surveys, to solicit stakeholders’ perceptions of risk thresholds (i.e., the time scale of impacts) and climate-related risk severity to sites with built infrastructure, natural amenities, and recreation and tourism destinations. The stakeholders’ knowledge, as well as their commitment to their communities and local environments, influenced general perceptions of region-wide climate-related vulnerabilities. The PGIS exercises generated important discussion among stakeholders and shed light on how to more efficiently collect spatially-explicit data and information from stakeholders that can be used to inform mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Understanding the physical attributes of a destination valued by visitors allows tourism managers to consider those components when planning, managing, and marketing destinations. However, determining the key components of visitors' destination image can be difficult. This study utilizes social media data to explore visitors' destination image of a nature-based tourism locale. Specifically, we examined user-generated content by visitors to the tourism region adjacent to Lake Superior in Minnesota USA during the summer 2015 tourism season. Content analysis was utilized to determine the major themes of visitors' destination image. Our findings are similar to those of existing studies: natural resources, built resources, and human subjects are the most prevalent components of destination image. However, our method of ascertaining these components of destination image - specifically, thematically analyzing social media data - present a technique that may be more easily accessible to tourism providers, as it can be a lower cost and time investment. We discuss how these findings can inform the development of recreation opportunities and marketing materials. This qualitative analysis of social media data can be applied in other locales as a relatively efficient and real-time method to inform place-based management and marketing.

This study examines the social-psychological drivers of conservation practice adoption among farmers in Minnesota. Specifically, it applies a moral obligation model to understand farmer decision-making related to water resource management, focusing in particular on conservation tillage and drainage management. Data were collected through a self-administered mail survey of 1500 landowners in two subwatersheds of the Red River Basin: Wild Rice River and Middle Snake-Tamarac Rivers. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Study results demonstrate that farmers’ decisions to adopt conservation practices are influenced by personal norms and perceived ability to protect water resources. Further, beliefs about personal responsibility for water protection, and perceived ability to protect water resources activate personal norms of water protection. Collectivistic and biosphere-altruistic values serve as the basis for the activation of personal norms. Study findings suggest that a combination of behavioral intervention strategies that provide tailored information about local water resource problems, appeal to farmers’ values, sense of responsibility and personal obligation, and enhance farmers’ ability to use conservation practices may be effective in achieving higher levels of conservation practice adoption.

Natural resource professionals increasingly recognize that water protection and restoration efforts require not only technical solutions, but also the active engagement of stakeholders who live and work in the local community. People of color, and those of lower income brackets, are frequently underrepresented in water-related programming or decision-making, although they are often disproportionately affected by water problems. Effective engagement of diverse community members in water programs and projects requires understanding and addressing constraints to action. We conducted 25 interviews with community members who live or work in a highly urbanized Minnesota watershed to explore perceived obstacles to community engagement in local water resource protection and restoration. Based on self-reported race, ethnicity, and general community engagement level, interviewees were assigned to one of three "stakeholder groups" for comparative analysis: formal decision-makers, active white community members, and active community members of color. Qualitative analysis of responses revealed perceived constraints to engagement common to all three groups: inaccessibility and invisibility of water, lack of local leadership in water issues, and limited community dialogue about water problems and solutions. Additional constraints were perceived uniquely by community members of color: cultural constraints around water uses, recreation, action, and inequities or disenfranchisement in community decision-making processes and water programming. Study findings suggest partnership building is needed for collaboration in designing civic engagement programs and improving water protection and restoration projects.

Climate change affects the supply of nature-based tourism opportunities as well as the demand visitors place on those opportunities. Climate-induced changes in visitor demand, specifically climate-related coping behaviors (e.g., seeking safer recreation sites, changing trip timing, using weather forecasts to plan trips), are influenced by multiple factors such as season of visit, specific visitor attributes, and general climate change beliefs and concern. Understanding the relationships between visitor characteristics and coping behaviors within the context of a changing climate will help recreation managers and tourism providers anticipate shifts in demand and adapt strategically. In this study, we present results from a series of binary logistic regression models of summer and winter visitor survey data to examine climate-related coping behaviors within a regional nature-based tourism area (the North Shore region of Lake Superior in Minnesota). Findings reveal that winter recreationists, younger visitors, and visitors who are concerned about climate change, are most inclined to use behavioral coping in response to changing climate and environmental conditions. Specifically, we found that winter season recreationists are much more likely to report having experienced a past climate-related impact, and that weather information, alternative gear, and flexibility in timing their trips are important in overcoming these constraints. Further, younger visitors were more likely to use informational (weather forecast) coping, site substitution, and activity substitution to respond to climate-related impacts. This study expands upon climate-related recreation and tourism research by documenting how recreationists' informational, spatial, and temporal coping behaviors vary across visitor characteristics. Further research is needed to determine if the behavioral coping preferences and patterns found in this study emerge across diverse contexts. However, our findings here can help managers begin to strategically plan and collaborate to maintain destination-level attractiveness to visitors despite changing environmental conditions. Management implications: Understanding how visitors respond to environmental changes is important in sustaining 'weather-resistant' visitor flows. In anticipation of on-site disruptions and future demand shifts, regional partnerships within nature-based destinations may mitigate reductions in visitor demand and accommodate shifting patterns in visitor flows. For example, recreation managers and tourism providers could identify and jointly market alternative recreation opportunities when conditions are not conducive to participating in desired activities, as well as develop a networked approach for communicating weather and site safety information.

Travel to nature-based tourism (NBT) destinations contributes to the economic vitality of many communities. However, NBT is especially vulnerable to changes in climate, such as shifts in weather patterns, and changes in environmental conditions that can directly influence outdoor recreation experiences. Communities, parks, and protected areas in NBT destinations have started to respond to climate change threats by assessing their adaptive capacity and planning adaptation strategies. Climate adaptation planning within NBT destinations necessitate local support and the leveraging of proximate resources. Yet, strategies to integrate visitors into climate adaptation efforts is not common, even though visitors' support for climate change planning and policy may be high. Little is known about the relationship between visitors' support for adaptation planning and their sociodemographic characteristics, their perceptions of climate-related risks, or the meanings they assign to destinations affected by climate change. In this study, we analyze visitors' personal attributes, trip characteristics, unique emotional ties and perceptions of the places they visit in relation to their willingness-to-pay (WTP) for a license plate that would direct funds toward regional climate adaptation planning. Survey data were collected on-site with NBT visitors and analyzed using binary logistic regression models. Results showed a WTP $30 annually is significantly influenced by increased income, age, climaterelated risk perceptions, and place meanings. Similarly, WTP more than the initial bid (i.e., >$30/year) for climate change adaptation and planning is significantly predicted by increased income and destination loyalty, as well as negative perceptions of climate change risks. This study contributes to a broader understanding of how recreationists and visitors can be incorporated into climate adaptation planning, demonstrating the possibility of a novel funding source.

Very little outdoor recreation and tourism research uses scientifically-grounded climate change projections or weather data to predict future recreation demand using standard contingent behavior methods. The demand studies that have presented visitors with projected changes to climate and weather are limited to predicting visitation demand in a single season at a single destination. This research note reports a replication of a winter tourism demand model for the summer tourism season at the same nature-based tourism destination. A comparison of model findings between the two seasons allows us to determine if, and how, summer and winter tourism demand to a specific destination will be affected by climate change. While winter demand is driven by multiple dimensions of place meanings, summer travel is motivated solely by how the destination shapes individuals' identities. This replication also considers an additional weather variable - daily high temperature on the day visitors completed the survey - to better understand the relationship between in situ weather conditions and recreationists' intended travel behaviors. Management implications: North Shore visitors' future travel behavior, contingent upon warmer temperatures and altered environmental conditions, was not significantly different than past travel behavior. The projected conditions presented in the scenarios might not have been severe enough that respondents believed they would substantially impact recreational opportunities on the North Shore. The maximum daily high temperature on the day a respondent was surveyed was not significantly related to contingent travel behaviors. Recreation resource managers and those in the tourism industry are not likely to see substantial shifts in tourism demand to the region over the next 20 years.

ABSTRACT This study applies an integrated moral obligation model to examine the role of environmental and cultural values, and beliefs in the activation of landowner conservation norms. Data for this study were collected through a self-administered survey of riparian landowners in two Minnesota watersheds: Sand Creek and Vermillion River watersheds. Study findings suggest that collectivistic and biospheric–altruistic values form the bases for the activation of personal norms. Further, beliefs about local responsibility and ability to act influence personal norms to protect water resources. Findings suggest that landowners’ personal norms of water conservation are more likely to be activated by conservation strategies that appeal to biospheric–altruistic and collectivistic values, emphasize adverse consequences of water pollution, highlight water resource protection as a local responsibility, and provide the resources needed to protect water resources.

This study examines the drivers of landowner engagement in water resource conservation in the Red River Basin. Specifically, it applies a theoretical framework, the norm activation theory (NAT), to understand the influence of beliefs and norms on landowners' civic engagement in water resource conservation. Data were collected through a self-administered mail survey of 1,500 landowners in two subwatersheds of the Red River Basin: Wild Rice River and Middle Snake-Tamarac Rivers watersheds. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Study results demonstrate that landowner beliefs and personal norms to take action are important predictors of landowner civic engagement in water resource conservation. This study offers strategies for policy makers, resource professionals, and other local actors to best design and promote water resource programs that are socially relevant and responsive to changing conditions.