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Changing Public Behavior > Audiences > Recreational water users

44 Total Findings

As part of the outreach planning process: Identify community leaders and assess their knowledge and concerns about fish consumption advisories as well as how information is shared within the community.

Collaborate with local and county health officials, environmental and fishing group representatives, and interested local leaders in planning, conducting, and evaluating community outreach efforts.

Design programs to: Establish an explicit set of objectives

Design programs to: Provide an authentic experience, similar to what the participant will experience in their personal life.

Design programs to: Provide an opportunity to practice the target behavior

Design programs to: Provide direct experience relevant to the objective

Design programs to: Provide learning opportunities before and after the field activities to optimize knowledge gain

Design programs to: Target outcomes for specific audiences.

Develop program design and content to adhere to guiding principles for boating, fishing, and aquatic stewardship education (Fedler, 2001). The program:

Develop program design and content to adhere to guiding principles for boating, fishing, and aquatic stewardship education (Siemer, 2001). The program:

Develop program design and content to adhere to guiding principles for boating, fishing, and aquatic stewardship education. The program:

Develop program design and content to adhere to guiding principles for boating, fishing, and aquatic stewardship education. The program:

Develop program design and content to adhere to guiding principles for boating, fishing, and aquatic stewardship education. The program:

Develop program design and content to adhere to guiding principles for boating, fishing, and aquatic stewardship education. The program:

Develop program design and content to adhere to guiding principles for boating, fishing, and aquatic stewardship education. The program:

Develop program design and content to adhere to guiding principles for boating, fishing, and aquatic stewardship education. The program:

Develop program design and content to adhere to guiding principles for boating, fishing, and aquatic stewardship education. The program:

Develop program design and content to adhere to guiding principles for boating, fishing, and aquatic stewardship education. The program

Develop program design and content to adhere to guiding principles for boating, fishing, and aquatic stewardship education. The program

Develop program design and content to adhere to guiding principles for boating, fishing, and aquatic stewardship education.

Document information and outreach work to help improve ability to assess the relationship between outreach and outcomes and to exchange materials and knowledge with others. Evaluate progress toward clearly defined objectives.

Engage golf course conservation superintendents in developing a course on turf grass management

Facilitate public access to land that is owned or managed by water utilities for purposes of protecting the watershed, in order to allow public scrutiny of forest/watershed management practices. Public engagement is critical to the success of source water protection programs, where citizens with experience of the land can effectively share views about topics such as no-cut zones around streams and protection for existing old forests.

Gauge public preference at an early stage of planning and design, or at least at the point where possible options are being considered

Grassroots community-based education efforts are effective in reaching at-risk urban anglers with fish consumption advisory information, as members of this group tend not to have access to traditional government communication networks such as press releases, brochures, flyers, and legal notices.

Identify locally-specific or culturally-specific needs or problems related to water conservation and quality. These may not be what an expert would typically expect due to unique cultural or situational needs. For example, in a person-to-person outreach initiative about toxic substances in fish, African-Americans were most interested in risks to their health from eating contaminated fish. Caucasians were most interested in the levels of contamination in the fish.

In designing outreach programs that strive to link environmental concern with recreational behaviors

In designing outreach programs that strive to link environmental concern with recreational behaviors, attend to:

In designing outreach to encourage participation in outdoor recreation programs, attend to:

In designing outreach to encourage participation in outdoor recreation programs, attend to:

In designing outreach to encourage participation in outdoor recreation programs, attend to:

Make turf grass management courses readily accessible to golf course managers and provide instructor support for completing assignments and application to their own golf course

Provide one-on-one communication with a person engaged in the targeted activity to enhance the knowledge they gain and their interest in acquiring more information.

Segment information content, to address differences in target audience interests.

Target outcomes for specific audiences

There is a need for the government to reach beyond traditional means of communication and design programs that recognize the unique features of a local community. This can only be done by being interested in the citizens themselves - by learning who the affected citizens are, by listening and responding to citizen concerns and by offering real alternatives to those citizens who may be negatively impacted in some way by government action.

To increase ownership and empowerment, design programs to:

To increase ownership and empowerment, design programs with a strong emphasis on:

To produce long-term changes in behavior, provide comprehensive training in the set of variables correlated with measurable changes in environmentally-related behavior, including:

Understand the roots of the environmental management problem and select your target audience based on a specific need. For example, if economic activity is most closely associated with the environmental problem, outreach initiatives should relate to the needs and interests of the target audience engaged in the economic activity

Use direct surveys and interviews to gauge public opinion as opposed to relying on "representative" stakeholders (direct representation may highlight factors not previously considered or lead to unexpected interests or concerns)

When involving the public in green space planning: use survey responses to group residents according to their interest in recreation, in planning participation, or no interest.

When involving the public in green space planning:

Work in collaboration with the professional association to publicize a course for golf course managers


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