Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Minnesota
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

The purpose of this study is to better understand private landowners within the 46 counties eligible for the WIA Program who participate in or have the potential to participate in the WIA Program by enrolling land in the program. Specific objectives of the study include determining: 1) landowner perceptions of constraints and barriers to participating in the program; 2) key social, economic, attitudinal and motivational antecedents to enrolling eligible land; 3) key attributes that define the preferences of landowners for choosing to participate in a WIA Program; and 4) spatial and other geographic characteristics that predict land enrollment. The information collected in the study will provide a better understanding of the variables that best predict landowners’ decisions to enroll property and facilitate development of a spatially explicit model that can help managers better understand which landowners have the highest potential for participating in the WIA Program in the future.