Martha Monroe

University of Florida | UF · School of Forest

The Organisation for Economic and Cultural Development (OECD) works with countries worldwide to implement testing in the areas of science, mathematics and reading through the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) every three years, and this process is recognised to influence education systems through areas such as curriculum. Over t...

Providing access to natural areas through recreation is a valuable strategy for garnering social support for nature conservation. Direct experiences bring landscapes into people's perceptible realms and create sense of place and place meaning. This meaning can even be transferred to similar areas through a brand effect. Mega trails can play a role...

Environmental education has the potential to help reduce negative human–wildlife interactions by increasing positive attitudes toward wildlife and providing participants with knowledge and skills that can help mitigate conflict situations and promote safety. To promote positive human–wildlife relationships, effective programs could be implemented w...

Managing wildfire in the wildland-urban interface (WUI) is challenging. Maintaining community preparedness is a crucial step in mitigating wildfire risk. Wise management of vegetation in and around communities, including procedures such as mechanical fuel reduction, herbiciding, and prescribed fire can be used to keep fuel loads low and increase th...

Fire protection is a necessary consideration when building homes and designing neighborhoods in Florida. The type, amount, and structure of vegetation surrounding the development and individual houses will affect the risk that homes will catch fire. Architects and developers can significantly reduce wildfire risk for those living and working in Flo...

Wildfire risk depends on the landscape surrounding communities and the vegetation immediately surrounding homes. To protect their homes, residents should consider both the materials used to construct their houses and the vegetation type and arrangement in the area around them. This publication presents information on how to landscape the vegetation...

Smart technology has the potential to help people practice more sustainable behaviors, but many barriers still exist. Understanding the motivations of people who use these devices can help educators develop more effective programs to ensure people reach appropriate conservation and sustainability goals. As a case in point, we analyzed surveys from...

Close to 19.6 million people live in Florida, and 76.5% of them, or approximately 15 million, live on the coast. Florida’s coasts are attractive despite the increasing risks from sea-level rise and more frequent climatic events such as hurricanes and coastal flooding. At particular risk from these erosive events are Florida’s 825 miles of sandy bea...

Context Providing access to natural areas through recreation is a valuable strategy for garnering social support for nature conservation. Direct experiences bring landscapes into people’s perceptible realms and create sense of place and place meaning. This meaning can even be transferred to similar areas through a brand effect. Mega trails can play...

Although images play a significant role in environmental communications, few studies have empirically examined whether positive or negative images are more effective at engaging attention and promoting behavior change. We conducted a 6‐week public experiment at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, Florida, to test whether viewing a...

The Cooperative Extension System, a component of every land-grant university, is well positioned to take a leadership role in community engagement in every state. In Florida, a new program called Community Voices, Informed Choices (CIVIC) builds capacity among county and state faculty from the state’s two land-grant universities to engage community...

Prescribed burning, the carefully planned and directed use of fire to achieve land management goals, is a useful tool for natural resource managers in Florida. Landowners may choose fire to achieve a variety of objectives, including restoring fire-dependent ecosystems, enhancing forage for cattle, improving wildlife habitat, preparing sites for ref...

Residents, farmers, and businesses in southwestern Georgia and northern and central Florida depend on the groundwater from the Floridan Aquifer. The availability of this clean water is important for natural ecosystems, agriculture, the economy, tourists, and the people who call Florida and Georgia home. This factsheet will provide an overview of th...

To address environmental challenges, it is essential to identify and set goals and priorities for environmental education, as well as strategies to achieve those goals. We surveyed environmental education professionals (n = 449) to identify their 20-year priorities for the field. High-ranked goals included expanding diversity, equity, inclusion, ac...

We rely on clean water to sustain human life, ecosystems, and food supply. In Florida and southwest Georgia, the Floridan Aquifer supplies much of the water we use. As populations grow and regional economies expand, the impacts of human activity on water pollution become more widespread. We must take preventative actions to minimize water pollution...

A “science communication problem” exists when scientifically-supported, policy-relevant fact is disputed because it conflicts with political perspectives or other culturally-relevant influences. This study evaluates whether such a problem exists on water topics, where it could obstruct productive discourse as new water policies are introduced. To i...

Stretching from Mississippi to South Carolina, the Floridan Aquifer is the main source of freshwater for southwest Georgia and north Florida. It provides drinking water for approximately 10 million people, supports agriculture and tourism, and sustains the ecosystem. The aquifer’s capacity is large but limited, and meeting the area's water demands...

Best management practices (BMPs) are cost-efficient processes that improve daily life, from healthcare to food service. Agricultural BMPs aim to reduce water use and improve water quality and soil on farms and ranches as well as to encourage better forestry practices and lawn care. This fact sheet introduces non-farmers to agricultural BMPs.

Neoadjuvant, or preoperative, chemotherapy is the use of chemotherapy to treat breast cancer before surgery. If your doctors have suggested that you consider this treatment, you probably have questions about it. This 4-page fact sheet provides an overview of chemotherapy treatment, potential side effects, and major benefits. Written by Barbara F. S...

Public Engagement with Science (PES) is a popular topic in the science community due to general concerns about public support for science, attitudes toward science, and changes in scientific funding requirements. PES may be especially relevant in conservation disciplines as the public plays an important role in conservation practice. Herpetofauna s...

Direct experiences in nature enable us learn and form environmental attitudes. Being influenced by nature as children is thought to help form a connection to nature that can lead to a lifetime of pro-environmental behaviors. A survey of adults in a watershed with a damaged estuary, however, suggests that concern and environmental identity were stro...

Catastrophic uncontrolled fires are a leading social-environmental challenge that now occur even in the humid tropics. In 2015 extensive Indonesian peatland fires commanded national and international attention and resulted in a ban on all burning in the country extending to traditional farmers practicing small-scale fire-based agriculture on minera...

Zoos, aquariums, and museums are expanding their identities and efforts to support wildlife conservation, but their impact is unclear. We apply a business theory of organizational identity to assess how conservation identities are created and applied. We examine three foundational and three practical components of identity using semi‐structured int...

People’s attitudes influence the nature of their interactions with wildlife and support for conservation. Globally, many environmental education programs seek to influence children’s attitudes toward wildlife and the environment. Understanding these attitudes requires assessment tools that are appropriate to the context and culture. However, most t...

Experiences in nature benefit humans in a variety of ways, including increasing health and well-being, reducing stress, inspiring creativity, enhancing learning, and fostering environmental stewardship values. These experiences help define the relationship people have with nature which is often correlated with a person’s level of environmental conc...

In 2012, an estimated 50% of rural households in India had a system of drainage for moving wastewater away from their homes, but 0.0% have access to safe, reuseable, treated wastewater. Constructed wetlands can provide decentralized wastewater treatment for rural villages and lead to multiple benefits, such as reusable water, reduced disease, and d...

Local leaders are using deliberative discussions to engage communities and build capacity for climate adaptation. These carefully framed, facilitated community forums enable participants to reflect on various perspectives that accompany contentious issues. The Florida Cooperative Extension Service is adapting this strategy to catalyze local communi...

This 19-page publication written by Martha Monroe and Annie Oxarart and published by the UF/IFAS School of Forest Resources and Conservation provides Extension faculty in Florida with useful strategies to help communities understand, discuss, evaluate, and recommend potential solutions to current and future problems. While much of the research behi...

Agricultural producers and environmentalists have a mutual interest in maintaining healthy water resources; yet communication and collaboration on sustainability measures can be impeded by perceptions of incompatible water ethics. Here we apply the co-orientation model to qualitatively and quantitatively compare cross-group perspectives and composi...

Constructed Wetlands (CWs) are a low-cost technology relying on natural processes to treat wastewater and provide a decentralized wastewater treatment option in communities with limited infrastructure. Little is known about their long-term maintenance or monitoring, or the experience of communities who adopt and maintain CWs. This research uses men...

Communities across the globe have begun planning for and adapting to climate change. Cooperative Extension Service professionals are in a unique position to use the resources available to them to facilitate climate change adaptation in their communities. Adaptation planning is a local activity that must be context specific. However, general recomme...

Conservation is an important organizational focus for zoos and aquariums. Organizational identity theory predicts a relationship between what is central to organizations, such as their mission statements, and their strategic activities. Based on this theory, we tested how organizational missions relate to their conservation strategies and practices...

Organizations can expand their impact through strategic partnerships. We used social network analysis to compare two network theories in order to determine whether zoos’ conservation partnerships form networks that reflect collaborative social movements or business-style competition. Data from 234 zoos revealed a conservation network involving 1679...

Diversifying the student body of natural resources (NR) programs by increasing numbers of women and people of color is important. This study explored factors influencing undergraduate interest in NR, including forestry, and decision to enroll in an NR undergraduate program at a large 1862 land-grant institution in the southeastern United States. We...

Most modern threats to biodiversity are due to human actions. Conservation psychology models provide tools to strategically change human behaviors to reduce these threats; however, behavior change theories have yet to be fully incorporated into conservation strategic planning techniques. The public that may be interested in a conservation issue are...

Many factors drive wildlife hunting and consumption, including source of income, taste preference, culture, lack of alternative meat, meat price, and wealth, and the relative importance of these factors may vary from place to place. We describe three aspects of wild meat consumption and trade in the town of Tapauá, central Amazon, Brazil: (1) facto...

Florida’s dynamic beach-dune ecosystem and the structures built along the shore face threats from coastal (or shoreline) erosion, sea level rise, and inadequate regulatory protection efforts. In light of these threats, private property owners are choosing to install coastal armoring on their property to protect upland structures which can negativel...

Fisheries management is increasingly turning to participatory approaches as a way to improve stakeholder satisfaction with management institutions and policies, reduce conflicts, enhance compliance, and achieve various other benefits. However, how these efforts are perceived by participants and their impact on actual stakeholder attitudes is rarely...

To determine the relationship between the intent of owners of homes located near sea turtle nesting beaches in the state of Florida to engage in coastal conservation easements (CCE), the theory of planned behavior (TPB), environmental identity (EI) and relevant demographics were analyzed. As CCEs are a novel application of a proven conservation too...

There is growing interest in, and need for, improving how we communicate our science with the public. Conversations about how to make our messages simple and understandable, how to harness social media and film to reach audiences (e.g., Shiffman 2018, Danylchuk 2018), and how to engage people using the power of story (e.g., Moore and Orth 2018) are...

Professional development is vital to help teachers gain skills and knowledge to teach about current environmental and societal issues. For climate change education, educators may need information paired with content-specific teaching strategies in order to build confidence to incorporate the topic into their curriculum. We applied educative curricu...

Residents in the wildland-urban interface probably have some notions about their local environment. They may have an experience, or may have heard something from neighbors, which helps them construct explanations and understandings that make sense to them. The challenge for extension agents and resource managers is to understand the beliefs that ar...

To increase their usefulness to educators, workshop facilitators should be familiar with terms and concepts now used to describe Florida's professional development. These terms should be incorporated into inservice programs. This fact sheet defines the terms that are most helpful and provides suggestions for planning, advertising, delivering, and e...

Public education for youth can influence future generations, but it typically does not create outcomes for those who need to vote on policies and create change today. A new study suggests that well-designed instructional units can foster family interactions that increase adult concern about climate change.

As part of a project that integrates research, cooperative extension, and education, a team of university faculty, staff, and graduate students collaborated with research scientists and educators to develop secondary education instructional materials on climate change and forests in the southeastern United States. This 5-year project resulted in 14...

The benefits of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed research methodologies are often emphasized in undergraduate and graduate training about producing and analysing data. Less often discussed are the philosophies of research that can be used to explore environmental education. To help introduce students to the ways such paradigms lead to different...

Increasing literacy among Extension professionals in every sector regarding potential regional impacts and adaptation strategies related to climate change is key to producing high-quality relevant programs addressing climate-related risks. Professionals in the forestry, agriculture, livestock, and coastal resources sectors attended the Southeast Re...

Volunteer angler data programs can help address challenges in collecting recreational fisheries data. However, recruiting and retaining participants is difficult. This study surveyed participants in the Angler Action Program to identify motivations and barriers to participation. Results showed participants were most motivated by the desire to impro...

Integrating climate change into environmental education programs and formal science classrooms can be difficult, as the issue remains controversial and highly politicized among the American public. This study proposes that the same cultural values that shape worldview differences and divide public opinion on anthropogenic climate change will influe...

For the person with breast cancer, a diagnosis causes her life to suddenly and dramatically change. As treatment progresses, the patient has a multitude of doctor visits, procedures, and often support groups to keep her busy and focused. Her partner's challenges are also significant, but unfortunately they are frequently overlooked. This 4-page fac...

Conducting a climate change presentation or workshop can be uncomfortable for adult educators because they do not want to alienate audiences or diminish their credibility among those who doubt climate change is a problem. Trust in the speaker is a key element for successful communication, and perhaps essential when conveying information about a con...

Agricultural development during the Green Revolution brought India food sovereignty but food insecurity persists. Increased crop production was promoted without considering the more holistic impact on food security. Scientists, extension agents, and farmers have different perspectives on how soil health relates to food security. Understanding stake...

Trees store carbon as they grow and produce wood. Carbon, and carbon storage in particular, have become important topics as policymakers, scientists, and industry leaders consider how to address the increasing amount of CO2 in our atmosphere. Because it changes the composition of the atmosphere, CO2 is a leading contributor to climate change. Stori...

The development and evaluation of the instructional module, Southeastern Forests and Climate Change, provided a platform to conduct social science research that has the capacity to improve sustainability education and our ability to achieve target outcomes. In addition to conveying information about climate change and forest management to secondary...

The instructional module, Southeastern Forests and Climate Change, is an example of innovation in sustainability education. The module was designed for high school science teachers and developed as part of a research project on southern pine productivity in a changing climate. As a result, it combines climate science with pine ecophysiology and eco...

This 6-page fact sheet helps people who have been diagnosed with breast cancer learn about the disease, and understand their diagnosis and treatment options. It is a minor revision written by Martha C. Monroe, Barbara F. Shea, and Linda B. Bobroff, and published by the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, October 2017. FCS8825/FY895:...

Hope is an important component that helps engage people in solving problems. Environmental educational resources addressing climate change effectively should ideally nurture hope as well as increase understanding about the issue. However, hopefulness about resolving climate change challenges is a relatively new construct in the literature and littl...

Increased interest in climate change education and the growing recognition of the challenges inherent to addressing this issue create an opportunity to conduct a systematic review to understand what research can contribute to our ideas about effective climate change education. An academic database, EBSCOhost, was used to identify 959 unique citatio...

Wild meat is an important source of food and income for people across the tropics, but overhunting is driving species declines. Comprehension of the interrelated factors that influence wild meat consumption is needed to help address this important issue. A central hypothesis is that market access in the tropics drives consumption. We tested this hy...

Millions of people across the tropics rely on wildlife for food and income. However, overhunting to satisfy this demand is causing the decline of many species; an issue known as the wild meat crisis. We applied a before-after control-intervention design to assess the effects of social marketing (an information campaign and community engagement) wit...

This chapter presents three cases that demonstrate a variety of interactions between residents and expert leaders in fostering sustainability innovations in cities. It looks at sustainable cities in Sweden, Japan, and the Netherlands, focusing on common principles that may help explain their success as well as the role of environmental education an...

This book explores how environmental education can contribute to urban sustainability. Urban environmental education includes any practices that create learning opportunities to foster individual and community well-being and environmental quality in cities. It fosters novel educational approaches and helps debunk common assumptions that cities are...

Hope is an important component that helps engage people in solving problems. The development of an instructional model on climate change and forests provided an opportunity to design and test a measurement tool to assess hope about climate change. In this article, we described the process and determined the reliability and validity of a newly devel...

Third in a series on climate change communication for Extension professionals, this 7-page fact sheet provides strategies for overcoming challenges in communicating about climate change. Written by Mark Megalos, Martha C. Monroe, and Claire Needham Bode, and published by the UF School of Forest Resources and Conservation, April 2016.

Climate communication research suggests strategic message framing may help build public consensus on climate change causes, risks and solutions. However, few have investigated how framing applies to adolescents. Similarly, little research has focused on agricultural audiences, who are among the most vulnerable to and least accepting of climate chan...

Costa Rica is internationally recognized for its abundant biodiversity and being a leader in the promotion of education strategies for biodiversity conservation. We interviewed staff from 16 institutions developing key environmental communication, education, and participation projects for biodiversity conservation in the country. Through content an...

This publication is second in a series on climate change communication for Extension professionals. This 5-page fact sheet provides strategies for overcoming challenges in communicating about climate change.­ Written by Claire Needham Bode, Martha C. Monroe, and Mark Megalos, and published by the UF School of Forest Resources and Conservation, Janu...

To encourage greater depths of both processing and retrieval by students during testing, the authors inserted one new, unfamiliar plant (i.e., a “ringer”) into the pool of samples assembled for each plant-identification quiz. Each ringer was chosen to be superficially similar to — and yet distinctively different from — a plant species covered earli...

An evaluability assessment of a program to save a critically endangered bird helped prepare the Blue-throated Macaw Environmental Education Project for evaluation and program improvement. The evaluability assessment facilitated agreement among key stakeholders on evaluation criteria and intended uses of evaluation information in order to maximize t...

Climate change is often avoided in educational programming due to its perceived polarizing nature. Identifying areas of agreement may help educators introduce climate change topics and help audiences begin to listen. As part of a survey of Extension professionals in the southeastern US, respondents shared their thoughts about climate change. Based...

Pine trees are highly important to Florida’s ecosystems and economy. There are seven species of native pines, and each grows best in a particular environment. People have found varied uses for each species as well. Several species are of commercial value and are cultivated and managed to provide useful products such as paper, industrial chemicals,...

Early childhood is a crucial period for the physical and cognitive development of children. Most people who care for young children realize that children benefit from playing outside, but caretakers might not have ready access to the literature that supports their observations. This 4-page fact sheet reviews some of the literature that shows that y...

Climate change is a highly charged topic that some adults prefer to ignore. If the same holds true for secondary students, teachers could be challenged to teach about climate change. We structured one activity about the biological concepts of carbon cycle and carbon sequestration in two ways: with and without mention of climate change. Results sugg...

To enhance their livelihoods and important ecosystem services, forest landowners in the southeastern United States could benefit from being aware of the potential impacts of future climate changes on their forests. Communicating information about climate risks, however, is challenging. This study explored the effect of message frames in videos on f...

Once you and your doctor schedule your breast cancer surgery, you may have additional questions about how you can prepare for your operation. This revised 5-page fact sheet provides information to help you get ready for breast cancer surgery through a brief overview of common surgical options, medical appointments, social support systems, and stand...