In recent years, federal and state government agencies have required larger proportions of funding for environmental programs to be generated locally. Local officials want assessments of local public opinion in order to make funding decisions. Extension educators should take the opportunity to fill this important need. This article presents results of an Extension study of residents' attitudes toward programs to preserve natural areas and agricultural lands. The findings, obtained using the contingent valuation method (CVM), reveal that basic attitudes toward conservation, area of residence, and income are important predictors of residents' willingness to pay (WTP) for conservation easement programs.
Blaine et al. (Fri,) studied this question.