Conservation Capstone 2023 - The Bush School of Public Service & Administration Texas A&M University

This capstone project’s objective is to explore how varying value orientations relate to individual attitudes toward land use modifications. This project evaluates the attitudes of future owners or managers of agricultural land towards conservation, as well as their willingness to voluntarily engage in conservation efforts to prevent the monarch butterfly from being classified as an endangered species. To that end, a survey has been administered to Texas A&M students ages 18-30 to determine how their value orientation impacts their attitudes on conservation funding and implementation.

A second part of the survey has also been administered to students of the same group who are future owners or managers of agricultural land, using scenarios to measure their attitudes toward voluntary conservation efforts. The Boone and Crockett Wildlife Conservation and Policy Program intends to use these findings to develop and propose conservation policies.