New Yorkers' attitudes toward restoring wolves to the Adirondack Park

Abstract

In recent years, management agencies and various other stakeholder groups have focused attention on the possibility of restoring wolves (Canis lupus) to the Adirondack Park (AP) in northern New York state. We assessed public attitudes toward wolf restoration and determined factors affecting those attitudes as part of an assessment of social feasibility. Forty-two percent of AP residents approved of restoration, 41% disapproved, and 17% were neutral. More statewide residents held positive attitudes (60%), but 34% were neither positive nor negative. As expected, attitudes toward restoration were predicted by a broad set of factors, including attitudes toward wolves, general attitudes toward wildlife and its interactions with humans, knowledge of wolves, evaluative beliefs about possible impacts of wolf restoration, desired changes in local wildlife populations, amount of media coverage about the issue, and sociodemographic variables. Different sets of specific independent variables representing these factors explained restoration attitudes for residents, depending on level of importance they assigned to the issue. We discuss several implications relating to application of our findings to a decision about whether wolf restoration in the AP should be dropped or promoted as part of a recovery plan for the Northeast.