Chesapeake Bay Program Goal Implementation Team (GIT) Funding Program - Scope #3 - Increasing Effectiveness of Landowner Engagement to Accelerate Wetland Restoration Across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Overview

Chesapeake Bay Program Goal Implementation Team (GIT) Funding Program

The Chesapeake Bay Trust has been designated to receive federal funds from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as part of the Chesapeake Bay Program Goal Implementation Team Funding Program. The work funded by this initiative advances outcomes identified in the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement. Each year, certain outcomes are chosen by the Chesapeake Bay Program as top priorities to address, and these stretch across all Goal Implementation Teams (GIT) and workgroups.

The Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement contains five themes consisting of 10 goals that will advance the restoration and protection of the Bay watershed. These goals are interrelated: improvements in water quality can mean healthier fish and shellfish; the conservation of land can mean more habitat for wildlife; and a boost in environmental literacy can mean a rise in stewards of the Bay’s resources. Our environment is a system, and these goals will support the health of the public and of the watershed as a whole. Each goal is linked to a set of outcomes, or time-bound and measurable targets that will directly contribute to its achievement. Each outcome has a Management Strategy and Logic & Action Plan which offer insight into how the partnership will achieve each outcome, as well as how we will monitor, assess, and report progress toward abundant life, clean water, engaged communities, conserved lands, and climate change resilience.

GIT 2 – Habitat – Scopes # 1, 2, and 3

The goal of the Habitat GIT is to restore, enhance, and protect the network of land and water habitats to support fish and wildlife and to afford other public benefits, including water quality, recreational uses, and scenic value across the watershed. To learn more about the Habitat GIT visit their website at https://www.chesapeakebay.net/who/group/habitat-goal-implementation-team.

Scope #3 - Increasing Effectiveness of Landowner Engagement to Accelerate Wetland Restoration Across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

Purpose and Outcome of Scope #3: In a recent Delmarva Wetland Partnership project, the contractor leveraged biophysical targeting and social science research to develop an innovative restoration practice engagement strategy for the Delmarva Peninsula in Maryland and Delaware (Houser et al. 2022). Social science questionnaires were subsequently used to identify the status of priority landowners’ interest in, knowledge of, and potential motivations for restoration practice adoption. This work revealed that among the surveyed landowners, the vast majority were unaware of the opportunities to implement restoration practices on their land (65%) and were interested in exploring these practices and programs (77%). The findings from the questionnaires allowed the Delmarva Wetland Partnership program to tailor engagement and deliver a social-marketing mail-based recruitment effort (Rickenbach et al. 2017), which approximately doubled the number of priority Maryland and Delaware landowners pursuing restoration programs. It is estimated to generate over five hundred acres of restored or enhanced wetlands over the next three years, in addition to adding more projects to the pipeline.

This Scope #3 will expand on the Delmarva Wetland Partnership’s restoration engagement program by designing, implementing, and analyzing complementary landowner social science data canvasing in the Pennsylvania and Virginia portions of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed to understand the best ways to engage these landowners in restoration activities and expansion. Scope #3 will facilitate partnership development by collaborating with a diverse group of organizations and accelerate wetland restoration. This will be completed by 1) identifying current landowner interest and barriers and 2) generating a contact list of potential interested landowners and offering restoration program insights with both federal and state wetland program staff.

Key Tasks of Scope #3:

* Creation and approval of a Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP).
* Questionnaire Design: To ensure generated data directly supports outreach/implementation teams, the contractor will co-produce questionnaires with state-specific restoration partners to gain insight applicable directly to partner-led outreach and broadly to state/federal restoration programs.
* Data Collection: Following a Tailored Design Approach (Dillman et al. 2014), the contractor will design and deliver questionnaire packets via mail to approximately 3,000 landowners per state (6,000 total). Questionnaire mailings include: (1) A pre-questionnaire post-card; (2) a questionnaire mailing packet that contains a (a) Cover letter including human subjects research participant information; (b) Questionnaire; and (c) Return envelope.  Non-respondents will receive up to three “reminder” mailings, per best practice for increasing response rates (Dillman et al. 2014).
* Data Processing and Analysis: Upon receiving returned and completed questionnaires, the contractor will enter reported data into a raw-data file and subsequently clean and analyze the data to determine cross-cutting and geographically specific themes related to wetland restoration interest, motivations, and barriers. This analysis will be compared and combined with our existing data from Maryland and Delaware landowners.
* Report Writing and Sharing: From the analysis of social data, the contractor will write reports summarizing the results and recommendations. The contractor will also present the results to the Wetland Workgroup and other interested organizations.

Eligibility

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