A comparison of CVM survey response rates, protests and willingness-to-pay of Native Americans and general population for fuels reduction policies

A contingent valuation method (CVM) study was used to compare survey response rates, protest refusals to pay, and median willingness-to-pay (WTP) of Native American communities in Montana compared to Montana's general population for two wildland fire mitigation strategies. Understanding differences in response rates, protest refusals to pay, and median WTP between Native Americans in the United States and the general population may shed some light on how well the method may work for indigenous people in other developed countries such as Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Native Americans survey response rates were not significantly different from Montana residents for the initial contact (first wave), but were significantly different for the follow-up in-depth phone interviews (second wave). Native Americans protest rate for the prescribed burning program was not statistically different from Montana residents. Conventionally calculated, protest rates for the mechanical fuels reduction program are higher for Montana's residents than Native Americans. Results from bivariate probit with sample selection models indicate that there is no significant difference between the Native American and Montana general populations’ median WTP for either program. This suggests that in Montana, Native Americans and members of the general population generally yield similar results to CVM questionnaires of forest fire management.