George R. Hess :: Current Graduate Student Research

Chimney Swift Conservation Education - by Meghan Lobsinger

Chimney swifts are birds of conservation concern that breed in masonry chimneys. Changes in construction practices and the capping of masonry chimneys are dramatically reducing available chimneys, and chimney swift populations are declining as a result. My thesis research addresses the question "Are the outreach methods typically used by conservation organizations effective in reaching these organizations' goals?"

I am examining Wake Audubon Society's "Year of the Chimney Swift" programs and fundraising as the case study for my research project. I am investigating whether Wake Audubon is reaching the public that will have the most effect on chimney swift conservation -- those homeowners with potential chimney swift breeding chimneys -- through its outreach efforts.

If the Society is indeed reaching the desired public, do its educational methods influence those people to change their attitudes or behavior (i.e., uncapping or not capping their chimney)?

Through pre- and post-program surveys at each program that Wake Audubon holds about chimney swifts, I am collecting data about who schedules and attends these environmental education programs. These data will summarize the demographics of Wake Audubon's typical audience and provide some indication of how much they learn at such programs. I will also use the survey to collect data on the statuses of potential chimney swift nesting chimneys. These data will be beneficial to biologists, such as Dr. Rua Mordecai, who monitors chimney swift population trends and the availability of breeding sites in the southeastern United States.

I will also examine the effectiveness of mass-distributed educational material, such as informational flyers or brochures, a common outreach method of many conservation organizations. I will compare chimney capping rates in neighborhoods that receive educational materials to neighborhoods that do not. This study will help compare the success rates of the two educational methods my research is studying (programs and material broadcast).

Taken together, my research is designed to provide environmental organizations such as Wake Audubon with an evaluation of the typical educational methods used, along with some alternatives, to addressing their intended audiences. I also expect to shed some light on how much the general public knows about chimney swifts, their attitudes toward these little birds, whether or not presentation-goers have the right chimneys to affect chimney swift populations, and whether or not the presentation-goers have been influenced to change their attitudes or behavior.

Dammed Reservoirs & Equity in North Carolina - by Michael Youth

Our increasingly urban society depends on infrastructure to support transportation, the delivery of clean water, the removal of waste, and other services. Infrastructure that is perceived as unfair can induce social unrest and thereby disrupt the status quo. As a result, infrastructural issues require decision-makers to engage in a delicate balancing of the economic, environmental, and social burdens and benefits. Environmental justice researchers aim to provide decision-makers with as much information as possible about the social burdens and benefits of a piece of infrastructure by investigating whether particular classes and pieces of infrastructure are associated with unfair demographic patterns and processes.

Environmental justice research ideally involves a two-step approach. First, researchers look for patterns -- spatial associations at a fixed point in time between infrastructure and a demographic, such as race or income. If a point-in-time pattern is established, researchers expand their analysis to additional points in time to uncover an explanation of how and why the observed pattern evolved. Quantitative longitudinal analyses help to explain how patterns evolved; qualitative place-based historical analyses help to explain why.

I believe additional quantitative longitudinal research will confirm that there are four basic infrastructure-related demographic processes that can take place in a community and merit attention: White flight, perpetual poverty, gentrification, and gating the community. The tendency to site hazardous waste facilities in poorer, minority communities is the paradigmatic example of an infrastructure that implicates perpetual poverty.

Access to a supply of drinking water is just as critical to urban sustainability and is frequently secured in North Carolina, USA, by constructing a dam to impound a water supply reservoir. I am using US Census data and GIS analysis to explore the potential of North Carolina drinking water supply reservoirs to induce gentrification. My preliminary results are that (1) the white population (%) tended to be significantly higher within a half mile of reservoirs' shorelines than in more distant communities, and (2) even as North Carolina overall became less white over a twenty year period (1990 to 2010), the white population (%) within the half mile areas tended to increase relative to the overall white population (%) in the state. These tendencies are consistent with gentrification or gating the community. Further research can explore whether these tendencies result from procedural inequities or cultural preferences.