Trees Work: A Baseline Survey of 3 Communities

Forestry Division has begun a state-wide campaign focused on increasing awareness of the benefits that trees and forests provide to Missourians. To be effective, this “Trees Work” campaign’s messages must resonate with a wide variety of groups and population segments, and do so in the brief opportunities. To develop and evaluate such targeted messages, we must understand 1) the current level of awareness of tree and forest benefits, 2) which of benefits are most important to Missourians, and 3) what messages are most likely to motivate people to action and what barriers prevent action toward sustainability of Missouri’s forests. The campaign is planned to last several years, so baseline research provides critical information for development and evaluation.

Three communities, Columbia, Salem, and Webster Groves, were chosen, not as representatives of all Missouri but as places where the campaign was about to be piloted, for a mail survey in 2013. Questions included respondents’ awareness of various environmental campaigns and tree benefits, which campaign linkages were most important, and which messages they found most resonant. MDC mailed out 6,700 surveys and received 2,426 responses, an overall response rate of 36%.