Cultivating Commitment: Using Collective Action and Motivational Strategies for Persistent Conservation in the Western Lake Erie Basin with Heather Craska

Addressing water quality challenges and Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in the Western Lake Erie Basin is fundamentally a collective action problem. While temporary financial incentives can encourage individual farmers to try a practice, this often results in fragmented adoption scattered across the landscape rather than the coordinated, watershed-scale coverage required for meaningful ecological impact.

Approaching Year 4 of The Pilot Watershed Project, our longitudinal research and social network analysis examine how program elements, such as annual research feedback from partner scientists, peer-to-peer networks, and systematic barrier reduction, build broader community coordination and foster long-term behavioral persistence. This session will explore findings from the watershed and discuss implications for scaling these strategies to establish local environments where producers remain motivated to maintain conservation practices after financial incentives end.