The Butterfly Highway: Connecting People and Nature

1 online resource (246 pages) : PDF

2017

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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.

doctoral dissertations

Geography
City planning
Conservation biology

Ph.D.

Citizen Science
Community Planning
Environmental Education
Pollinators
Urban Biodiversity
Urban Ecology

Geography & Urban Regional Analysis

Sorensen, Janni

Schneider, Stan
Boyer, Robert
Gagne, Sara

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2017.

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Hjarding_uncc_0694D_11354

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:1179