Attitudinal, knowledge, and behavioral characteristics of participants in National Wildlife Federation's Backyard Wildlife Habitat program

Few researchers have studied the impacts of residential wildlife stewardship programs, such as the National Wildlife Federation's (NWF) Backyard Wildlife Habitat (BWH) program. We used an evaluative approach using implementation theory and program theory, adapted from Weiss (1998), to study the characteristics of BWH participants. Environmental attitudes were measured using a subset of the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale and attitudes toward wildlife-related issues were measured using the Wildlife Attitudes and Values Scale (WAVS). Finally, we examined the relationships between selected variables and stewardship behaviors (i.e., wildlife management or resource conservation activities) of participants. The most common form of educational assistance (used by 64% of nationwide participants) was free NWF materials. For each of the 5 most popular forms of assistance, participants using the assistance performed significantly more stewardship behaviors than their counterparts. Consistent with the Theory of Reasoned Action, we found that attitudes toward stewardship behaviors were the strongest predictor of number of stewardship behaviors performed. Based on these results, we recommend that administrators of residential wildlife stewardship programs emphasize to participants the importance of planning processes. We also recommend that program administrators ensure that participants in wildlife habitat education programs have access to a variety of information sources.