The Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute (MTRI) is a non-profit co-operative with a mandate to advance collaborative research, monitoring, and management that promotes sustainable use of natural resources in southwestern Nova Scotia.
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What is the MTRI phone survey?
The Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute was established in 2004 and within a couple of years was able to purchase its field station in the small rural community of Kempt, Queens County. To achieve its goal of promoting sustainable resource use, members of the MTRI co-operative have adopted ambitious education and outreach objectives and always strive to keep the lines of communication open between members and researchers and with the public. MTRI’s plan for outreach includes a number of signature events such as monthly seminars about local research projects through the winter and a weekly series of seminars throughout the summer. Each year, MTRI hosts a Woodlot Demonstration in the fall and an Open House around the Christmas holiday. MTRI also works with North Queens schools to bring students to the field station in early summer to meet researchers. All of these education projects, and others, are advertised through local newspapers, by word of mouth, and other means. To evaluate the success of these efforts, phone surveys to local residents have been ongoing.
Project objectives
- To determine how successful MTRI’s education and outreach activities have been at reaching members of the local community.
- To create a database of baseline information related to the perceptions of the residents of southwest Nova Scotia to activities taking place in and around MTRI.
- To enable local citizens of southwest Nova Scotia to become involved in research and monitoring activities in their area.
Methods
- A series of questions was developed to assess the participant’s awareness of activities in and surrounding MTRI, including topics such as: whether people have heard about MTRI and what are their information sources; asking if people know what MTRI does; creating a profile of willing respondents which describes their outdoor activities, dependence on the forest industry, their visitation of Kejimkujik, their age, and their gender; determine what people know about invasive fish, old forests, and species at risk; determine the values and concerns of respondents about economic and environmental issues.
- Random phone numbers in the North Queens exchange were called and permission was requested of the household resident to answer the survey.
- Staff of MTRI collected answers and analyzed the data gathered from phone conversations with local citizens.
Results
- The community of North Queens includes approximately 800 households, 250 of these were contacted by telephone during the summer of 2007. Seventy-three people agreed to answer a series of questions and of those, 43 had heard of MTRI. Twenty-five people who had heard about MTRI had read about it in newspaper articles, 19 had seen posters in the community, 26 had heard about MTRI’s public talks (most by word of mouth but also via posters and newspaper articles).
- Two interviewees had attended a public talk, and 1 had visited MTRI’s website. When asked what MTRI works on, the most common responses (in this order) were: turtles, species at risk, fish, and loons but there was quite a variety of answers.
- Two-thirds of respondents said they participated in outdoor activities: 42% canoeing, 34% camping, and 30% birdwatching.
- One-third said someone in their household worked in the forest industry.
- 50% have visited Kejimkujik in the past year.
- 95% think old growth forests are important for habitat, animals, historical reference, ecosystem function, lumber, and beauty.
Years of Data
Ongoing project since 2007
Partners
Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute