Strategies to Address Beach Walking and Dog Disturbance

Guide to Applying Science and Management Insights and Human Behavior Change Strategies to Address Beach Walking and Dog Disturbance Along the Atlantic Flyway

Human disturbance continues to be a major threat for Atlantic Flyway shorebirds. Despite many efforts to reduce disturbance, activities that are potentially disturbing to shorebirds are widely present across the United States and Canada portion of the Atlantic Flyway. To mitigate disturbance from two common human disturbances — dog walking and beach walking — Virginia Tech, Audubon, Manoment and other AFSI partners developed a new Guide to Applying Science and Management Insights and Human Behavior Change Strategies to Address Beach Walking and Dog Disturbance Along the Atlantic Flyway. The project was funded by National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

This document employs a trans-disciplinary approach, in which insights from biological and social science fields are integrated, along with applied expertise and knowledge of land managers and conservation practitioners. It introduces shorebird conservation professionals and land managers to Community Based Social Marketing (CBSM) as an approach to changing human behavior to benefit shorebird conservation.

The document includes:

  • An overview of management needs based on social science data, biological data, and a co-production workshop between social and biological scientists and managers.
  • An overview of the community-based social marketing approach.
  • CBSM strategies to address dog-related disturbance.
  • CBSM strategies to address disturbance from beach walking.
  • Existing resources for implementing strategies to reduce disturbance from dog walking and beach walking.
  • Resources needed for implementing strategies to reduce disturbance from dog walking and beach walking.

Learn More From a Guided Webinar

To learn more about how this document was developed and how you can use it, join the document’s authors for a webinar. We will walk participants through the key components of the document, focusing on how it can be applied to create behavior change strategies that can reduce disturbance from dog walking and beach walking. Watch here.

Additional Products

This guide was informed by rigorous social and biological data collection and analysis.  The reports and associated journal articles provide insights that may be useful for managing shorebird disturbance.