Public attitudes and knowledge about ecosystem management on department of defense land in Florida

New ecosystem management policies at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, emphasize the need for public education and involvement in the changing focus of natural resource practices. To collect baseline information for ecosystem management, we measured and compared the knowledge, attitudes, and interests of critical Eglin audiences: recreational users and neighboring citizens. Factor analysis of surveys of 700 permitted recreational users and 1000 neighboring citizens revealed four content areas for measuring knowledge and attitudes: (1) native and endangered species, (2) fire ecology, (3) forest resources, and (4) ecosystem management. Overall, both audiences lacked basic ecological knowledge and held neutral to slightly positive attitudes toward the key content areas. Recreational users were significantly more knowledgeable than general citizens about native and endangered species, fire ecology, and forests. However, citizens held significantly more positive attitudes toward native and endangered species conservation and ecosystem management concepts. Eglin's consumptive recreationists (bunters and anglers) held the most negative views. Sociodemographic information from the surveys suggest that the recreational users and neighboring citizens are a stable, educable population that would respond positively to programs aimed at improving knowledge of and attitudes toward ecosystem management goals at Eglin.