We assume that the data can be analyzed using non-parametric tests of congruence. T. Scott has a grant for the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources to test the ability of using assessors data to calculate the dollar value of wildland amenities in rural areas. Assessors data are available as GIS coverages, so we will select approximately 500 houses at each area, located at random distances from the edge of wildlands. Using hedontic regression or similar detrending techniques, we will separate amenity values from all other associated values in housing prices. By stratifying the samples among different level of affluence, housing densities, amount of surrounding wildlands, and age of neighborhood, we will attempt to describe some of the regional patterns of variation in this amenity value.
Property owners are aware of their property s amenity value but are unable to estimate the amounts.
Understanding the dollar amount of this amenity will change their attitudes about wildlands . We will contact a subsets of individuals within each sample area and will perform standard before and after questions about amenity values. We will also ask them if they a series of questions about their attitudes towards wildlands to see if their behavior could be modified by ecological or economic information. Ecological Literacy can be measured as a dose-related phenomenon brought about by exposure to ecological information, regardless of cultural context Ecological outreach has traditionally used level of exposure as the benchmark for ecological literacy. We will develop a Urban LTER information base, to put this information on a web station, and then to invite internet subscribers from different regions and ethnic groups to view the information on the web site.