This research project in the Science and Society, Ethics and Values in Science, Engineering and Technology Program will illuminate the interactions between science and society by focusing on how science-based policy is put into practice by private organizations that hold conservation lands. The goal is to improve our understanding of how land trusts span the boundary between natural science and social values in the identification and management of private conservation lands. To meet this goal, the research will (1) characterize the diversity of land trust organizations; (2) examine how conservation science and rural community values are engaged in the processes and products generated by diverse land trusts; (3) use a comparative case study approach to develop explicit conceptual models of how organizational structure relates to the processes and products of land trusts. Information about participating organizations will be compiled from relevant public documents and confidential long interviews with key actors (approximately 40). Participants will be people who consider themselves associated with organizations that manage conservation lands. The interview procedure will be semi-structured, with a list of questions and prompts delivered within the flow of a conversation. Interviews will be digitally recorded using procedures consistent with the highest standards of privacy, confidentiality, transparency and equity. Transcripts of interviews will be coded and analyzed for salient themes using standard software. The additional sources of information will provide the contextual grounding for triangulation in the interpretation of interview results, to best evaluate emerging conceptual models. This research will advance the theoretical foundation for understanding how organizations create a safe space for citizens from diverse communities to learn about each other's perspectives while remaining securely grounded within the value systems of their support communities. By integrating theory derived from political ecology and environmental anthropology, the resulting hybrid model will enhance understanding of how boundary organizations (e.g. land trusts) shape public support for science-based policy. This conceptual approach will stimulate cross-fertilization of ideas in interdisciplinary teams seeking to bridge the gaps across informal and formal cultural divides, thereby enhancing problem-solving capacity for generations facing uncertainties about future resources. This research will be grounded in the context of a 6-county area of the Big Thicket in east Texas, at one intersection of many issues currently affecting fragmentation of agricultural and forested lands across the nation. The resulting case studies will provide venues for comparison with other localities, stimulating discussion of how generalities emerge from specific experiences. For example, lessons learned at the national/global level of hierarchical scale may inform how local organizations mediate their specific boundaries between science and policy. Regional patterns may in turn illuminate trends that were otherwise obscured at national/global levels. Results will be disseminated in a series of workshops for the land-trust community and associated stakeholders. Although the context will be the longleaf pine ecoregion typical of southern forests, the lessons learned will apply to forested landscapes that are changing across the nation and globe.
