Colorado residents’ familiarity, aesthetic evaluations, and approval of forest management practices

Abstract

This article examined the influence of familiarity with and aesthetic evaluations of forest management practices on Colorado residents’ (n = 416) approval of nine different forest management practices. The nine practices were (1) forest restoration, (2) planting trees as windbreaks, (3) wildfire defensible space, (4) forest thinning, (5) clearcuts, (6) patch cuts, (7) prescribed fire, (8) fuelbreaks, and (9) reducing surface fuels. Regression analyses indicated that both aesthetic evaluations of and familiarity with the forest management practices increased Colorado residents’ approval of the practices. Aesthetic evaluations, however, had a larger impact on approval than familiarity, except for creating wildfire defensible space, windbreaks, and fuelbreaks. These findings suggest that outreach messages should be designed to not only increase familiarity with forest management practices but also highlight the aesthetic benefits of forest management to increase approval of different practices.