Many residents in African American neighborhoods in Charlotte, NC, struggle to meet basic needs and lack the capacity to address other quality of life issues such as beautification, social capital, and environmental justice. Urban wildlife, including pollinators, also struggle to meet basic needs due to a lack of suitable habitat available for food and reproduction. Habitat loss is attributed to urbanization, overuse of pesticides, and human landscape preferences for non-native species that provide little or no habitat resources for pollinators. This study explores the interactions of people and nature through a social-environmental intervention, the Butterfly Highway. The research presented in this dissertation focuses on humans and nature at the intersection of social and ecological systems at the neighborhood, community, and county scale. This study uses a transdisciplinary research approach bridging the disciplines of geography, planning, and conservation. Participatory Action Research and qualitative research methods are used ensure that participants have a strong voice in the study and to more fully understand conservation engagement and participation at multiple scales.The findings of this work contribute to several areas of knowledge at the intersection of social and ecological systems including: 1) Our understanding of the barriers, benefits, and outcomes of participation in a community based citizen science program. 2) How an environmental intervention can work at the intersection of social and ecological systems through the framework of ecological wisdom. 3) How a social-environmental intervention can impact governance at multiple scales.
