1. home and garden
2. environmental safety

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION
AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION
BOATER PERCEPTIONS OF ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AFFECTING
LAKES IN NORTHERN WISCONSIN1
Ben Beardmore2
ABSTRACT: Understanding public perceptions of the importance of environmental issues is crucial for gauging
support for management activities. I present a novel methodological approach to assess the importance boaters
placed on 16 water issues in a lake-rich region of northern Wisconsin. A latent class maximum difference conjoint model was used to examine the relationships between environmental concern and engagement with lake
resources. Boaters were grouped to maximize observed heterogeneity in prioritizing issues of concern. Sociodemographic characteristics, recreation specialization, place attachment, and attitudes concerning aquatic stewardship and invasive species management were then used to predict class membership. This modeling
approach identified five groups whose perceptions of issues pertaining to lakes are influenced by their interactions with the lake environment. While anglers were most concerned about fishing quality, sightseers identified
lakeshore development and loss of natural habitat. Groups also differed in their socio-demographic and attitudinal characteristics. The priorities of each group were substantially different from those of the overall sample.
Accounting for differences in stakeholders’ environmental concerns may improve public involvement in water
management initiatives by allowing managers to identify common concerns and prioritize important issues
among multiple groups.
(KEY TERMS: best-worst scaling; latent class analysis; decision support systems; sociology; public participation.)
Beardmore, Ben, 2014. Boater Perceptions of Environmental Issues Affecting Lakes in Northern Wisconsin.
Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 1-13. DOI: 10.1111/jawr.12265
diversity within and among stakeholders (Hunt
et al., 2010).
Research into the human dimensions of natural
resources has long focused on understanding environmental attitudes and behaviors (Dunlap and Heffernan, 1975; Theodori et al., 1998). Grounded in the
theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991), research on
human-environmental relationships has attempted to
understand how personal values and attitudes lead to
environmental behavior or preferences for management strategies. Past research has often focused on
identifying relationships between involvement in
In democratic societies, natural resource policy
depends on successfully gauging public concern for
environmental issues (Steelman and Ascher, 1997).
Shared goals and perceptions among managers, scientists, and the public are important for successful
collaborative ecosystem-based management (Gray
and Jordan, 2010), and public values should provide
the framework for outreach efforts. Participatory
processes, however, often favor a vocal minority of
stakeholders, and managers are challenged to
ensure that resulting policies and actions reflect
public concerns more broadly, while acknowledging
1
Paper No. JAWRA-14-0015-P of the Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA). Received January 10, 2014; accepted
September 8, 2014. © 2014 American Water Resources Association. Discussions are open until six months from print publication.
2
Research Associate, Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 680 North Park Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706 (E-Mail:
[email protected]).
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AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION
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dependence pertains to an individual’s perception of
how well a setting serves to achieve their goals given
a range of alternatives (Stokols and Schumaker,
1981). Attachment to place has been linked to greater
participant concern for environmental quality (Butler
and Redfield, 1991; Gabriel and Lancaster, 2004;
€nen et al., 2011), with concern for environmenPitka
tal quality strongly related to ownership (Stedman
and Hammer, 2006; Stedman et al., 2007).
Finally, socio-demographic characteristics have
also been related to environmental concerns. For
example, women have been shown to express stronger values and beliefs concerning the negative consequences of environmental problems (Mohai, 1992;
Stern et al., 1993; Stern and Dietz, 1994). Age (Bremner and Park, 2007) and urban vs. rural residency
(Kellert, 1996) have also been shown, in some cases
but not all, to correlate with environmental concern.
Lack of consistent results to support Dunlap and
Heffernan’s (1975) hypotheses, and indeed drivers of
environmental concern more generally, has fueled
significant controversy (Theodori et al., 1998; Eisenhauer et al., 2000), and suggests that the association
between outdoor recreation and environmental concern is complex and warrants further study (Van
Liere and Noe, 1981; Thapa, 2010). The inconsistencies of past findings may be due, in part, to two
contributing factors. First, while past research has
identified several contributing factors (mentioned
above), these factors have typically not been examined conjointly. In other words, the relative importance of each factor to predict environmental
attitudes and preferences has not been examined.
Consequently, inconsistent results may stem from
unexamined factors in each of the past studies. Second, the traditional approach to test for differences
among individuals has depended on segmentation to
identify groups based on the factors of interest. A limitation of this approach is that heterogeneity in the
dependent variable may not be maximized (Beardmore et al., 2013). This study reexamines some of the
hypothesized relationships between activity involvement, place attachment, and environmental attitudes
using a novel approach that addresses these limitations to provide new insights into the structure of
public concern for environmental issues in the lakerich region of northern Wisconsin.
To improve the understanding of the factors
influencing the perception of environmental issues, I
sampled the heterogeneous boater community in
northern Wisconsin. The Northern Highlands Lake
District of Wisconsin (NHLD) has many second-home
owners for whom lake-based recreation is a primary
amenity. This largely rural and forested region is one
of the densest lake regions in the world, with over
7,000 lakes covering 13% of the landscape (Buffram
outdoor recreation activities and environmental attitudes (Dunlap and Heffernan, 1975; Van Liere and
Noe, 1981). For example, past studies examining the
drivers of environmental attitudes have related
aspects of recreational specialization (Bryan, 1977;
Ditton et al., 1992) and place attachment (Geisler
et al., 1977; Jorgensen and Stedman, 2006) to environmental stewardship activities (Loftus, 2007) and
attitudes (Fedler, 2007; Loftus, 2007). Dunlap and
Heffernan (1975) developed three foundational
hypotheses concerning the relationship between
involvement in outdoor recreation and environmental
concern, suggesting that as participation rates
increase, so does the strength of one’s concern for the
environment. Furthermore, they proposed that recreationists engaging in “appreciative” activities would
be more environmentally concerned than those taking
part in “consumptive” activities. Finally, Dunlap and
Heffernan (1975) hypothesized a positive relationship
between the strength of concern for protecting
aspects of the environment and the degree to which
those aspects are necessary for pursuing such activities. Support for these hypotheses has been mixed
(Van Liere and Noe, 1981; Theodori et al., 1998;
Thapa, 2010); however, this research has, to date,
focused on role of activity type, rather than on degree
of activity involvement.
Activity involvement reflects the degree of psychological commitment to the activity (Buchanan, 1985),
and is often measured as centrality to lifestyle (Kim
et al., 1997), which is the degree to which the activity
influences other aspects of one’s life. It has been suggested that increased resource dependence among
more involved users should lead to greater conservation orientation (Ditton et al., 1992), and indeed,
activity involvement has been associated with acceptance of stringent regulations across diverse outdoor
recreational activities including recreational fishing
(Ditton et al., 1992; Oh et al., 2005; Oh and Ditton,
2006), bird watching (Hvenegaard, 2002), and hiking
(Virden and Schreyer, 1988). These findings have
suggested that as interest in an activity increases, so
does level of environmental concern (Fedler, 2007).
Another form of environmental engagement affecting strength of environmental concern is associated
with attachment to place. Place attachment concerns
the bond between people and spatial settings (Moore
and Graefe, 1994), and may include several dimensions depending on the institutional context of the
place (Bricker and Kerstetter, 2000; Kyle et al.,
2003). Most recreational research focuses on two
dimensions that appear to be most generally applicable, namely, place identity and place dependence
(Hunt, 2008). Place identity relates to the degree that
individuals personally identify with a geographic setting (Jorgensen and Stedman, 2006), while place
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AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION
BOATER PERCEPTIONS
OF
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AFFECTING LAKES
METHODS
Sampling Frame
The sample for this study comprised boaters who
were recruited into a yearlong trip diary program at
the landings of 136 lakes in Vilas and Oneida Counties
(Wisconsin) between Memorial Day weekend and
Labor Day, 2011, as a part of a larger survey focusing
on invasive species. Of these lakes, 127 were chosen
to represent a range of sizes and distances from population centers in the region to ensure the greatest
possible diversity of boaters. To ensure ecological
representation, these lakes reflected the range of sizes
available among publicly accessible lakes in the region.
The remaining nine lakes were selected because they
were both popular lakes for boating activities and also
OF THE
AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION
NORTHERN WISCONSIN
known to have populations of an invasive weed,
Eurasian water-milfoil Myriophyllum spicatum.
Because boating activities were more prevalent on
weekends, recruitment was evenly divided between
weekdays and weekends to ensure that weekday boaters were represented in the sample. Lakes were also
visited at different times of day throughout the study
period to ensure all types of boating activities were
likely to be encountered (Hicks et al., 1999). For example, anglers were often more active near dawn and
dusk, while water skiers preferred the hottest part of
the afternoon. All boating groups encountered at the
boat landing were approached and the adult owner of
the boat was invited to participate in the study. This
direct intercept approach worked well on more popular lakes, but many of the lakes in the sample received
too little boater traffic for in-person recruitment to be
efficient. At these lakes, a census of vehicles in the
parking lot was taken and a recruitment brochure was
left on each windshield. Survey packages were then
mailed to any boaters that returned the attached
request. It should be noted, however, that in-person
recruitment was considerably more successful than
using brochures. While 96% of individuals approached
by student interviewers agreed to participate, only
14% of brochures left on windshields were returned.
At the end of the boating season, a 14-page follow-up
survey, the focus of this study, was mailed out to
respondents. The survey protocol followed the tailored
design method (Dillman, 2007). Participants received
a $5 incentive at the onset of their participation, and
each booklet that was returned was also entered into
a drawing with a fixed chance of receiving a check for
$50. Regular contact was maintained throughout the
diary period, and five separate contacts were made
regarding the follow-up survey. In all, 1,716 participants (1,500 through direct contact and 216 who
returned brochures) were recruited into the study.
After accounting for 21 undeliverable surveys, the
final response rate for the follow-up survey was 61%,
with no significant differences found at this stage
between recruitment methods.
et al., 2011) and has seen a 4.6-fold increase in population over the last century (Carpenter et al., 2007).
This residential development and its attendant boatbased recreational activities, such as recreational
fishing and waterskiing, have had a conspicuous
impact on lakes in the NHLD (Carpenter et al., 2007)
including decreased water quality due to increased
runoff (Carpenter et al., 1998) as well as loss of habitat (e.g., coarse woody debris in littoral zones), the
introduction of aquatic invasive species (AIS), and
increased fishing pressure (Carpenter et al., 2007).
While these four issues have been identified by
researchers as pressing concerns, public perceptions
of issues that affect freshwater systems are much less
known, and may differ across individuals.
Therefore, the aim of my study was twofold. First,
I aimed to address an important management need,
namely, to identify issues of concern perceived to be
most important by the boating public. Second, I
wished to test Dunlap and Heffernan’s (1975) hypotheses concerning the relationship between activity
involvement and environmental concern while
accounting for other factors. These hypotheses would
predict, for example, that boaters engaged in recreational fishing would prioritize issues related to fishing
quality, and that this relationship would strengthen
with increasing commitment to that activity. To do
so, I present an application of the maximum difference conjoint approach (MDC; Louviere and Woodworth, 1983; Finn and Louviere, 1992) using latent
class analysis to identify subgroups of boaters whose
concerns maximally differ. Probability of membership
in each subgroup is predicted by demographic factors
and psychometric indicators of activity involvement
and environmental engagement.
JOURNAL
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The Survey
The mail survey comprised several sets of questions.
In addition to basic socio-demographics, information
about their ownership of shoreline properties, and primary use for their boat, several 5-point scales (coded
from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree) elicited
responses related to centrality to lifestyle (modified
to reflect boating activities from Kim et al., 1997),
attachment to place (Hunt, 2008), attitudes toward
aquatic stewardship (Fedler, 2007), and management
of AIS (Bremner and Park, 2007). These scales were
3
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categorical variables in the model and effects coded
such that parameter estimates summed to zero (Bech
and Gyrd-Hansen, 2005). Income, however, while initially measured using a 9-point categorical scale, was
recoded into a continuous variable by taking the midpoint of each bin.
At the core of this study were questions to elicit
the relative importance of 16 potential issues of
concern to waterways. These issues were identified in
subjected to factor analysis to confirm their underlying
constructs. Factor scores with Cronbach’s a > 0.70
(Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994) provided indices for
further analysis (Table 1). In addition to these factor
scores, gender, household income, primary purpose of
the boat, and whether or not they reside at a shoreline
property when staying in the region also provided covariates to predict latent class membership. Most of
these demographic characteristics were included as
TABLE 1. Psychometric Scales from Which Indices (factor scores) Were Derived as Latent Class Covariates.
Dimension
Item
N
x
SE
SD
a
Variance Explained
by Factor
Centrality to
lifestyle
If I stopped boating activities, I would probably lose touch with
a lot of my friends
If I couldn’t use my boat, I am not sure what I would do
Because of my boating activities, I don’t have time to spend
participating in other leisure activities
Most of my friends are in some way connected with boating
I consider myself to be somewhat expert at the activities I do
with my boat
I find that, in the summer, a lot of my life is organized around
boating activities
I would rather be in my boat than do most anything else
609
2.18
0.05
1.24
0.79
0.44
609
609
2.70
2.27
0.06
0.05
1.35
1.17
609
609
2.70
3.67
0.05
0.04
1.29
1.05
609
3.21
0.05
1.26
609
3.29
0.05
1.19
Place
identity
This lake means a lot to me
This lake is very special to me
I am very attached to this lake
This lake says a lot about who I am
I identify strongly with this lake
I feel this lake is a part of me
609
609
609
609
609
609
4.39
4.09
3.65
3.00
3.43
3.04
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.05
0.05
0.05
0.81
0.96
1.15
1.17
1.18
1.29
0.91
0.57
Place
dependence
No other place can compare to this lake
I wouldn’t substitute any other area for the boating I do at
this lake
Boating at this lake is more important to me than boating at
any other place
This lake is the best place for the boating I like to do
I get more satisfaction out of my boating activities on this lake
than any other
I would enjoy boating at a similar site just as much as I enjoy
it at this lake (reversed scale)
609
609
3.26
2.93
0.05
0.05
1.19
1.26
0.88
0.09
609
2.87
0.05
1.27
609
609
3.41
3.24
0.05
0.05
1.18
1.21
609
2.56
0.04
1.02
I believe helping to protect Wisconsin’s aquatic resources is a
sensible thing to do
I’d feel like I was doing the wrong thing if I don’t act in an
environmentally friendly way
Being conscious of Wisconsin’s aquatic environment has
become a part of who I am
I like the feeling I get when I do things that help protect
Wisconsin’s aquatic resources
I would feel guilty if I don’t do things in a way that helps
protect Wisconsin’s aquatic environments
I believe the quality of Wisconsin’s aquatic resources has an
effect on my personal health
609
4.61
0.03
0.72
0.84
0.59
609
4.46
0.03
0.85
609
3.94
0.04
0.98
609
4.23
0.03
0.77
609
4.28
0.03
0.82
609
3.51
0.05
1.10
Controlling wildlife and plant populations (both native and
nonnative) is necessary to help conserve the environment
All nonnative species living in Wisconsin should be eradicated
(totally removed), where possible, to protect native species
Nonnative species should be controlled or eradicated where
they cause economic damage
Nonnative species should be controlled or eradicated where
they do damage to threatened Wisconsin species
609
4.28
0.03
0.79
0.74
0.46
606
3.68
0.04
1.01
607
4.25
0.03
0.81
607
4.28
0.03
0.84
Aquatic
stewardship
Aquatic
invasive
species
management
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JOURNAL
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AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION
BOATER PERCEPTIONS
OF
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AFFECTING LAKES
eVni
Pni ¼ PJ
Vnj
j¼i e
e1Vni
Pni ¼ PJ
1Vnj
j¼i e
ð2Þ
As each item in the list was categorical in nature,
effects coding was used to center the resulting
parameters on zero (Bech and Gyrd-Hansen, 2005).
The resulting model provided estimates for each item
with constants parameterizing the effect of list order
(Cohen, 2003). These parameters, being conjointly
estimated, are interval scaled.
To account for heterogeneity among boaters in
terms of the importance placed on the various issues
presented in my MDC, I analyzed these data in a
latent class choice model (Swait, 1994). Following a
long tradition in economics (Lancaster, 1966), I
assumed that respondents’ choice function depended
on both the combinations of issues presented as alternatives and also individuals’ preferences for the
issues. The latent class choice model statistically
MDC offers several benefits over more traditional
survey formats. Most importantly, identifying the
most distinct pair of most and least concern from a
set offers information comparable to ranking, but
with considerably lower burden on respondents (Marley and Louviere, 2005). Unlike Likert-type ratings,
the MDC also forces respondents to make tradeoffs
among the items in the list preventing the occurrence
of scale bias, arising from respondents rating all
items similarly (Haider and Hunt, 1997). Finally,
choosing both a best and worst item captures more
information than the “pick one” task common among
discrete choice experiments (Flynn et al., 2007).
AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION
ð1Þ
where V is an estimate of the utility of the alternative provided by summing the regression coefficients
of the model. By assuming that the relative choice
probability of a given pair is proportional to their
difference in utility, a latent scale of preference is
derived from the regression coefficients of the model
(Finn and Louviere, 1992). Because each choice set
is associated with two responses, MDC models are
treated as a partial ranking exercise, i.e., a sequential
choice process (Kamakura et al., 1994). In this way,
the second choice associated with each set is treated
as if it were a first choice out of a set from which the
previously chosen alternative has been eliminated. In
this case, selection of the most important issue is
equivalent to a first choice, and the least important
issue is treated as the first choice from the remaining
alternatives. Unlike a ranking of the two most important issues, the choice probability of the least important issue is assumed to be negatively related to its
utility (Cohen, 2003), indicated in the model by
means of a replication scale factor of 1, which
reverses the choice probabilities, as follows (Vermunt
and Magidson, 2005).
Modeling Approach
OF THE
NORTHERN WISCONSIN
Like discrete choice experiments, statistical analysis of MDC surveys is grounded in random utility
theory, which assumes that people choose the single
option that maximizes their benefit (McFadden,
1974). Under this assumption, the probability of an
individual (n) choosing one alternative (i) from a set
of J alternatives may follow a multinomial logit function (Louviere and Woodworth, 1983).
consultation with an interdisciplinary group of scientists at the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Limnology. A wide range of issues were identified with
great care taken to ensure saliency to respondents
(Table 2). As much as possible, generic issues such as
water quality and climate change were represented
by a range of more specific issues. Overall, issues are
related to five general areas of concern. Four of the
16 issues pertained to pollution, two of which identified the source of the contaminant (point and nonpoint source pollution), while the others listed
particular types of pollution (persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals). Five items directly
addressed biological impacts to lakes, namely, habitat
loss, introduction of invasive species, loss of native
species, increasing frequency of algal blooms, and
increasing abundance of weeds. Two items presented
issues pertaining to the extremes of water level
(flooding/high water levels and drought/low water
levels). Two issues related to recreational use of the
lakes, presenting the concerns of declining fishing
quality and overcrowding by the users. The remaining issues related to overdevelopment and regulation
of shoreline activities.
To determine the relative importance of these
issues concerning waterways, I applied a MDC
approach (Finn and Louviere, 1992). Under this
approach, respondents were presented with a combination of 4 issues of concern (MDC choice set) that
were randomly selected from the 16 identified issues.
Their task was to choose the two issues from the
choice set that (1) most and (2) least concerned them
(Figure 1). Overall, I created 16 MDC choice sets following an orthogonal fractional factorial design that
was sufficient to estimate all main effects (Raktoe
et al., 1981). The 16 sets were orthogonally blocked
into four survey versions. One version was randomly
assigned to each respondent, such that each person
completed four separate choice sets.
JOURNAL
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5
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JOURNAL
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First statement in list
Second statement in list
Third statement in list
Fourth statement in list
Loss of natural habitat
Loss of native species
Introduction of invasive
species
Increasing frequency of
algal blooms
Increasing abundance
of weeds
Nonpoint source
pollution (e.g., storm
runoff)
Point source pollution
(e.g., discharge from a
factory or mill)
Heavy metal
contamination
(e.g., mercury)
Persistent organic
pollutants (e.g., dioxin,
polychlorinated
biphenyls)
Drought/low water
levels
Flooding/high water
levels
Underregulation of
shoreline property
activities
Overregulation of
shoreline property
activities
Overdevelopment of
shorelines
Reduced fishing quality
Overcrowding by
lake users
0.205
0.200
1.108
1.499
26.5%
0.370
0.373
0.240
0.202
2.319
1.710
0.212
1.708
0.182
0.246
0.738
0.973
0.181
0.230
1.516
1.129
0.229
1.901
0.176
0.796
0.200
0.192
0.675
0.132
0.080
0.073
0.069
0.076
0.198
0.197
0.182
0.087
0.146
0.034
0.024
1.576
0.053
0.802
0.231
1.238
0.275
0.220
0.239
0.207
0.242
25.7%
0.320
0.325
0.533
1.630
0.520
1.660
1.404
0.208
0.236
2.274
2.338
0.189
0.223
0.276
1.336
1.887
2.967
0.250
0.242
0.256
1.102
0.076
0.082
0.078
0.083
0.268
0.253
0.222
0.188
0.066
0.090
0.033
0.151
0.890
1.415
0.460
1.456
0.269
0.264
0.318
0.330
0.228
0.309
0.275
20.7%
0.282
0.282
2.717
1.149
1.099
1.709
1.215
2.990
1.235
0.240
0.304
0.507
1.677
0.316
0.257
0.253
0.105
0.124
0.113
0.105
0.263
0.280
0.241
SE
1.451
0.966
1.390
0.212
0.962
0.446
0.304
1.079
1.526
1.408
b
Class 3
0.342
0.318
0.259
0.253
0.252
0.231
0.242
0.237
0.262
15.7%
0.296
0.319
2.812
1.582
0.593
0.429
1.551
1.444
1.235
0.042
0.065
0.231
0.300
0.799
0.286
0.305
0.353
0.211
0.097
0.109
0.089
0.110
0.488
0.332
0.236
0.203
0.047
0.256
0.006
0.846
0.897
0.925
0.428
SE
b
Class 4
SE
0.402
0.418
0.839
0.374
0.343
0.389
0.314
0.343
0.424
0.374
0.380
0.303
0.344
0.155
0.150
0.142
0.141
0.446
0.454
0.313
11.5%
0.364
0.368
0.853
0.957
3.591
1.531
1.547
2.645
1.515
0.207
0.227
0.265
0.670
0.042
0.747
0.403
0.255
0.185
0.036
1.500
1.475
1.679
b
Class 5
2,129.5
95.0
Wald
5.6e-395
1.1e-13
pValue
1,338.7
67.1
Wald(=)
2.0e-240
1.1e-09
pValue
0.734
1.272
0.089
1.138
1.399
2.173
0.608
1.033
0.684
1.206
0.449
0.014
0.260
0.121
0.276
0.096
0.059
0.703
0.233
1.186
x
1.621
0.700
1.509
0.738
0.993
0.548
1.404
0.590
1.265
1.454
0.833
0.901
0.730
0.162
0.342
0.213
0.123
0.862
0.966
0.312
r
Overall
Overall model summary statistics: Log likelihood = 4,922.8; L2 = 9,845.7; BIC = 10,830.9; AIC = 10,153.7; R2 = 0.363; R2(0) = 0.363; Classification error = 0.117; df = 446.
Class specific model statistics
Class size
R2
R2(0)
Recreational
Regulatory
Hydrologic
Pollution
Ecological
Order
shown
SE
b
b
SE
Class 2
Class 1
TABLE 2. Latent Class Preference Model for 600 Boaters Sampled in the Northern Highlands Lake District of Wisconsin. Bolded values indicate
statistically significant differences from the mean estimate for each class at p < 0.05. Class sizes are given in parentheses.
BEARDMORE
AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION
BOATER PERCEPTIONS
OF
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AFFECTING LAKES
sorts respondents into the groups that most differ in
these preferences. As demonstrated by Swait (1994),
class membership and choice probabilities fit the
conditional logit model:
Pni ¼ PJ
j¼i
eVnkj
eank þ
PK
k¼1
eank
RESULTS
PQ
q¼1 ðbnkq znkq Þ
P
þ Q
q¼1 ðbnkq znkq Þ
Survey and Sample Description
ð3Þ
Of 1,695 surveys successfully mailed to study participants, 1,046 surveys were returned; however,
after accounting for item nonresponse, a final sample
size of 600 (35.5%) was retained for this study. On
average, respondents had a mean age of 52 years
(SD = 11.7) and were overwhelmingly male (80%),
well educated (50% having completed at least a bachelor degree), and of middle-class income (48% earned
$50,000-$100,000 per year). On average, they boated
26 days (SD = 22.2) during the 2011 season. An
assessment of nonresponse bias compared respondents to individuals who completed only the initial
survey (N = 357), using information collected from
the initial survey. The mean number of boating days
estimated by the two groups did not significantly differ (
x = 29.9, SD = 43.3 for 184 nonrespondents vs.
= 29.8, SD = 31.8 for 600 respondents). No signifix
cant differences were found in the distribution of the
primary activities for which the boats were used
(v2 = 2.77, p = 0.60), or in membership rates in lake
associations (v2 = 0.001, p = 0.97), aquatic conservation groups (v2 = 0.13, p = 0.73), or angling clubs
(v2 = 1.69, p = 0.19). While these tests indicated no
biases associated with response patterns in the follow-up survey vs. that of the initial survey taken at
the start of the study period, I was unable to test for
sample biases. For this reason, I caution readers from
generalizing the findings of this study to the overall
boater population; however, theoretical insights and
broader implications for management still hold.
Under this specification, the probability of choosing
an alternative depends on the product of two logistic
functions. The first function governs the probability
of members from a class k selecting an issue as most
important based on its estimated utility as presented
in Equation (1). The second component of the model
governs the probability that the boater belongs to
class k (of K classes) as a function of a constant ank
and the parameter coefficients (bnkq) for Q boater
characteristic covariates (znkq). Latent class parameter functions were estimated using maximum likelihood estimation in Latent Gold Choice 4.5 (Vermunt
and Magidson, 2005).
A two-stage approach was used to model boater
perceptions of importance. First, a latent class model
was specified without the use of covariates to predict
class membership. In fitting models, it is possible to
increase likelihood by increasing the number of
parameters, which may lead to overfitting. Model
selection was based on the Bayesian information criterion (BIC; Schwarz, 1978), which imposes a penalty
for additional parameters to ensure model parsimony.
For large sample sizes, BIC can be approximated as
follows:
BIC ¼ 2LL þ h lnðnÞ
ð4Þ
where LL is the log likelihood statistic, h is the number of parameters in the model, and n is the sample
size (Raftery, 1995). In this case, five classes were
found to most parsimoniously capture the diverse
opinions of my sample, minimizing BIC. Models specifying six or more latent classes not only had higher
BIC values but also produced one or more classes
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that were exceedingly small capturing less than 1%
of the sample variation. The five-class model was
therefore carried forward in the analysis. Boater
characteristics were then systematically included as
classification covariates and the five-class model was
rerun such that classification and preference were
jointly estimated as shown in Equation (3). As in the
first stage, final model selection was made by minimizing BIC. To estimate the overall importance of
each of the 16 issues, parameter estimates from each
of the five classes were weighted by class size
(Vermunt and Magidson, 2005).
FIGURE 1. Example of a Maximum Difference
Conjoint Task with Instructions.
eVnki
IN
Boater Perceptions of Issue Importance
The first stage of analysis involved selecting the
optimal number of latent classes needed to capture
7
JAWRA
BEARDMORE
the existence of substantial heterogeneity within my
sample. Because membership in each class is defined
by unobservable criteria (namely differences in preferences), one must look to the predictive ability of
other characteristics in order to associate latent classes with particular stakeholder groups.
Class 1 boaters (Figure 2A) were most concerned
about pollution with three of the top four issues that
concern them related to this broader issue. They were
primarily concerned about point source pollution
(e.g., discharge from a factory or mill; 21%), followed
by natural habitat loss (15%), heavy metal contamination (14%), and persistent organic pollutants (e.g.,
dioxin; 10%). Following these issues came four issues
that were similarly ranked, with a relative impor-
diverse preferences observed in my data, with a fiveclass model emerging to provide optimal fit (Table 2,
Figure 2). Classes 1 and 2 were largest, comprising
approximately 27 and 26% of the sample, respectively, while Class 3 encompassed about 21%. Class 4
(16%) and Class 5 (12%) were somewhat smaller. Figure 2 illustrates the interval scale ranking provided
by the MDC method. Each panel presents the
expected frequency with which an issue would be
selected as most important to the region, given the
full set of 16 issues to consider. The latent classes
show clear differences in their concern for issues
potentially affecting lakes in the region, as given by
significant Wald statistics comparing parameter estimates across classes (Wald(=); Table 2) and highlight
FIGURE 2. Interval Scale Ranking of 16 Issues Concerning Waterways of the Northern Highlands Lake District
for Five Latent Classes and the Overall Sample. The relative importance of each issue is shown on a scale
that sums to 100% within each panel. Note the difference in x-axis scales across panels.
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BOATER PERCEPTIONS
OF
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AFFECTING LAKES
IN
NORTHERN WISCONSIN
Class 3 boaters were primarily concerned about
fishing quality (35%; Figure 2C), and secondarily
concerned with persistent organic pollutants (12%)
followed by nonpoint source pollution (10%), introduction of invasive species (9%), and increasing frequency of algal blooms (9%). Overdevelopment of
shorelines and loss of natural habitat are similarly
rated by this group (7%), closely followed by increasing abundance of weeds (6%). The remaining issues
were markedly less important, garnering a score of
1% or less. Consistent with their concern over declining fishing quality, membership in Class 3 was associated with boats primarily used for fishing, followed
closely by waterskiing (Table 3). This group was also
more likely to stay at a lakefront property in the
region.
Like members of Class 3, Class 4 boaters also prioritized declining fishing quality over other issues,
and like Class 2 boaters, their concern for their most
important issue was also more extreme (48%, Figure 2D). Whereas the first three classes prioritized
pollution among their top secondary issues, Class 4
boaters showed more concern for issues of drought
(10%), invasive species (7%), loss of native species
(7%), habitat (7%), and over regulation of shoreline
property activities (4%). Members in Class 4 were
tance near 7%, namely, introduction of invasive species, increasing abundance of weeds, low water levels,
and increasing frequency of algal blooms. Nonpoint
source pollution (e.g., storm runoff) and loss of native
species were yet less important with a relative rank
of 4%, while the remaining issues received a relative
rank of 2% or less. Class 1 members were significantly more likely to be female and to score higher in
terms of place identity (Table 3).
Class 2 boaters were similarly most concerned
about point source pollution (45%), but other issues
were of markedly less concern (Figure 2B). Heavy
metal contamination ranked second for this group at
14%, followed by the introduction of invasive species
(9%), persistent organic pollutants (8%), and nonpoint
source pollution (7%). Declining fishing quality and
overdevelopment of shorelines received 5%, and all
remaining issues scored less than 2%. Class 2 membership was significantly influenced by primary boat
use, attracting individuals who report activities other
than recreational fishing, and those only casually
involved in their boating activities as indicated by
low centrality-to-lifestyle scores. Membership in this
group was also associated with high levels of place
attachment to their favorite lake, and attitudes that
were unfavorable toward AIS management (Table 3).
TABLE 3. Classification Model Predicting Latent Class Membership of Individuals in My Sample. The Wald statistic and
associated p-value indicate the statistical significance of each boater characteristic’s contribution to the classification
model. Bolded values indicate statistically significant contributions (p < 0.05) of each parameter for each class.
Class 1
b
Intercept
0.41
Gender
Female
0.47
Male
0.47
Annual household income
Linear (per $100,000)
0.70
Quadratic
0.21
Stay at lakefront property
No
0.03
Yes
0.03
Primary purpose of boat
Waterskiing/water sports
0.07
Sightseeing/pleasure cruise
0.10
Recreational fishing
0.02
Other recreational uses
0.19
Centrality to lifestyle
Factor score
0.13
Place identity
Factor score
0.29
Place dependence
Factor score
0.04
Aquatic stewardship attitude
Factor score
0.16
Invasive species management attitude
Factor score
0.19
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SE
Class 2
b
Class 3
Class 4
SE
b
SE
b
SE
Class 5
b
SE
Wald
p-Value
3.68
0.41
1.23
0.57
1.27
1.03
2.76
1.59
1.32
3.9
0.42
0.12
0.12
0.00
0.00
0.14
0.14
0.16
0.16
0.19
0.19
0.26
0.26
0.21
0.21
0.04
0.04
0.24
0.24
16.3
0.003
0.78
0.32
1.63
0.97
1.06
0.47
1.30
0.58
1.00
0.43
1.99
0.84
0.83
0.34
1.64
0.91
0.99
0.39
10.5
13.5
0.033
0.009
0.09
0.09
0.13
0.13
0.10
0.10
0.24
0.24
0.11
0.11
0.02
0.02
0.12
0.12
0.39
0.39
0.17
0.17
7.8
0.099
0.27
0.24
0.22
0.51
0.60
0.12
0.77
0.29
0.42
0.33
0.29
0.73
0.36
0.05
0.52
0.83
0.30
0.30
0.26
0.68
0.00
0.48
0.32
0.17
0.32
0.29
0.29
0.70
0.17
0.66
0.99
1.47
0.31
0.32
0.28
0.55
33.3
0.001
0.12
0.39
0.14
0.03
0.12
0.05
0.13
0.50
0.23
9.6
0.048
0.13
0.32
0.15
0.04
0.12
0.10
0.14
0.66
0.24
12.1
0.017
0.12
0.28
0.13
0.04
0.11
0.20
0.13
0.01
0.22
6.7
0.16
0.16
0.26
0.17
0.11
0.16
0.56
0.16
0.87
0.37
15.2
0.004
0.14
0.31
0.15
0.01
0.14
0.25
0.15
0.24
0.27
8.8
0.067
AMERICAN WATER RESOURCES ASSOCIATION
9
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BEARDMORE
this method to identify the relative importance of
specific issues concerning freshwater systems to the
boating public.
Latent class analysis revealed the existence of
diverse concerns within the boating public, and inclusion of covariates of class membership provided
insights into the relative influence of activity involvement and environmental engagement on boater
perceptions. Given that my sample comprised only
outdoor recreationists, the study design did not allow
direct testing of Dunlap and Heffernan’s (1975) first
hypothesis; however, I found some support for the
other two. First, the primary use for their boat was a
key predictor for three of the five latent classes. As
may be expected, recreational fishers were much
more likely to be concerned about fishing quality than
those pursuing other recreational activities. On the
other hand, participants engaged in nonconsumptive
activities were more likely to belong to groups whose
primary concerns reflected a more general conservation orientation (i.e., pollution, loss of natural habitat,
or overdevelopment.)
While the study did not test whether those who
engage in outdoor recreation show greater environmental concern than those who do not, inclusion of a
classification covariate measuring the centrality to
lifestyle (Kim et al., 1997) supported the hypothesis
that degree of activity involvement is correlated with
level of concern, as more involved participants had
greater likelihood of belonging to the latent class with
the greatest disparity between their primary concern
and all others (Class 5; 11.5%). These individuals
were also most concerned about overdevelopment and
underregulation of shoreline activities, which is consistent with previous studies that have suggested a
link between recreation specialization theory (of
which activity involvement is a primary construct)
and conservation orientation (Ditton et al., 1992; Oh
and Ditton, 2006). Resource dependency (Ditton
et al., 1992) may indeed be the reason for this trend,
as the high centrality group was also most likely to
report using their boat primarily for guided fishing
trips. This use suggests that not only are these individuals to be psychologically dependent on the lake
resource but also financially dependent. Finally,
members of Class 5 were also most likely to have a
lakeshore residence, which suggests that they may
have a stake in preserving property values and lake
character by limiting future shoreline development.
Past research has found that environmental
engagement relates to more general attitudes toward
environmental stewardship and management. Following the theory of planned behavior, environmental
value orientation (i.e., biocentrism) has been associated with greater frequency of reporting intentions to
more likely to report either low or high household
incomes, and also to have less favorable attitudes
toward aquatic stewardship (Table 3).
Finally, Class 5 differed from all the other groups
with the issue of overdevelopment of shorelines dominating as the single most important issue concerning
lakes in the region (60%, Figure 2E). Following this
concern came the introduction of invasive species
(9%), underregulation of shoreline property activities
(8%), loss of native species (7%), and overcrowding
(4%). All other issues received weights less than 2%,
indicating that they were considered more than 30
times less important than their primary concern with
overdevelopment. Membership in Class 5 was highly
influenced by positive attitudes toward aquatic stewardship, and negatively influenced by residence on
lakeshore property and place identity associated with
a favorite lake. These boaters were also more likely
to indicate “other recreational activities” as their
primary use for their boat, and to score highly in the
centrality of these activities to their lifestyle
(Table 3).
Most striking, however, were the differences in
issue importance between each latent class and the
weighted mean for the sample as a whole (Figure 2F). While the introduction of invasive species
ranked a close second for the sample overall, this
issue did not emerge in the top one or two issues for
any single boater group. Indeed, for all classes, this
issue was ranked considerably lower than their most
important issues. Similarly, while point source pollution narrowly ranked as the most important overall,
this issue is among the least important for almost
half the sample (Classes 3-5.)
DISCUSSION
In the face of multiple and often contradictory
objectives, prioritization of key concerns is a key step
in the allocation of institutional resources and an
ongoing challenge for natural resource managers.
While MDC methods are well established in marketing (e.g., Marley and Louviere, 2005; Mueller et al.,
2009) and health sciences (e.g., Finn and Louviere,
1992; Flynn et al., 2007; Lancsar et al., 2012), they
have only recently been applied in natural resource
management sectors with examples from fisheries
(Dorow et al., 2009), forestry (Tutsch et al., 2010;
Loureiro and Dominguez Arcos, 2012), and tourism
(Scarpa et al., 2011), as a tool for assessing stakeholder preferences and prioritizing management
action. This study presents the first application of
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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AFFECTING LAKES
OF THE
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NORTHERN WISCONSIN
constituents. By focusing on a set of 16 issues specific
to lakes, the management implications of this study
are equally specific. First, while aggregate results for
the whole sample suggest that point source pollution
and introduction of invasive species are of primary
concern, these results do not reflect the perceptions of
a substantial portion of boaters, for whom other
issues are of greater priority. Second, among the five
latent classes identified, three issues were identified
as most important, with little overlap among groups
differing in these priorities. While two groups of
latent classes emerged that shared top issues (Classes
1 and 2 both prioritized point source pollution; while
Classes 3 and 4 prioritized declining fishing quality),
these groups differed in their preferences for secondary issues. Consequently, managers may face criticism when addressing issues of greater overall
concern, if they do not also address issues identified
by specific groups as well. This study identified sizeable groups of northern Wisconsin boaters, whose
perceptions of lake issues differed, which provides
managers with an opportunity to acknowledge public
concerns, to engage with stakeholders on these
issues, and ultimately to address them.
engage in conservation behaviors (Prinbeck et al.,
2011), or support for active management to correct an
environmental problem (Bremner and Park, 2007).
While my study did not include a scale of general
environmental concern, aquatic stewardship and attitudes toward management of invasive species were
statistically significant predictors of class membership, with stewardship values positively associated
with membership in Class 5 (primarily concerned
with overdevelopment), and attitudes toward management of AIS negatively associated with Class 2
members (who were primarily concerned with point
source pollution). Unfortunately, these two scales
suffer from two potential but opposing limitations.
The aquatic stewardship scale may be too broad, and
therefore correlate only with magnitude of concern
without being associated with particular issues. On
the other hand, attitudes toward management of AIS
may be too strongly associated with a single issue.
Other scales of environmental concern in future
research on understanding boater perceptions of lake
issues may therefore provide broader insights.
While MDC excels in weighting the relative importance of items in a list, it is important to note a corollary weakness. Namely, the evaluation is limited to
only those items on the list. In this case, the list was
developed in consultation with university scientists
and agency experts, to mitigate potential biases of
omission. Furthermore, despite opportunities to draw
attention to other issues of concern through an openended question at the end of the survey, respondent
comments focused on the listed issues. That said,
lake issues are not necessarily discrete. While the list
included items concerning nonpoint source pollution
and algal blooms, it did not include a more general,
but related, issue of water clarity. Consequently, I
was unable to ascertain whether respondents treated
these issues as proxies for water clarity as the issue
of greatest concern.
Another important limitation of my study concerns
the reasons for individuals’ concerns. Given the predominantly rural residential character of the region,
it was surprising to see point source pollution feature
so prominently among a sizable segment of respondents. One potential reason for this outcome is that
most respondents live primarily outside the region,
and may transfer concerns related to their home
watersheds to the NHLD. Unfortunately, I was
unable to assess whether this was the case. An
improvement to this study would be the addition of a
series of questions to allow respondents to explain
their choices and/or to supplement the quantitative
approaches presented here with focus groups or interviews to provide additional qualitative insights.
Despite these limitations, this study also provides
managers with insights into an important group of
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CONCLUSION
In this study, I used a novel approach to provide
insights into the relative importance attributed to
various issues of concern for managing aquatic systems. This study illustrated the usefulness of MDC
as an efficient tool to elicit stakeholder preferences.
This usefulness was enhanced through application of
latent class analysis to account for preference heterogeneity among stakeholders with additional insights
provided by a classification model identifying associated socio-demographic and attitudinal characteristics. MDC clearly discriminated among the issues of
concern, highlighting the overall importance of controlling pollution and the spread of invasive species
in contrast to issues related to over- or underregulation, crowding, and water levels that were of lesser
concern. That said, the latent class analysis revealed
that these overall preferences masked systematic differences in preferences among distinct groups of boaters. While primary concerns, namely, point source
pollution, declining fishing quality, or overdevelopment, dominated within one or more boater groups,
these same concerns were much less important to
other groups. These results underscore the diversity
among boaters related to the ways in which these
users interact, both physically and psychologically,
with the lake environment. These results also high11
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BEARDMORE
light a challenge for resource managers to balance
issues of greatest overall concern against priorities of
special interests within stakeholder groups who share
divergent perceptions and preferences.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was supported by the National Science Foundation
(award number CNH-0909281) with additional support from the
North Temperate Lakes – Long-Term Ecological Research program. I thank K. Anderson for her work on earlier drafts of the
boater survey, and S. Carpenter, J. Gaeta, A. Latzka, E. Stanley,
and J. Vander Zanden for their help with developing the list of
16 issues. I also thank G. Jackson, K. Zipp, J. Jolitz, and my
crew of undergraduate research assistants for the field work.
Finally, I must also acknowledge the help of R.W. Provencher
and C. Riepe for their comments on early drafts, and two anonymous reviewers whose feedback further improved the submitted
manuscript.
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