2022: Conversation for Conservation: The Value of Conversation for Decreasing Lawn Care Maintenance Practices that Harm Bird Habitat
Use of gas-powered tools to maintain residential lawns minimizes and harms bird habitat and contributes extensive GHG emissions. Yet, changing property owners’ lawn care practices has proven difficult due to normative, logistic, legal, and economic factors. Based on emerging research suggesting that conversation in families, among friends, and in neighborhoods is effective in increasing pro-environmental attitudes and intentions, the researchers will examine whether conversation can influence lawn care practices. They will target behaviors that property owners can feasibly change, given the previously mentioned factors. Through a survey and a follow-up experiment, they will study the impact of conversation, especially in groups, on reducing use of gas-powered lawn tools among private property owners in NYS.
Investigators: Poppy McLeod, Communication; Tina Phillips, Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Becca Rodomsky-Bish, Cornell Lab of Ornithology