About

Professor Chloe Wardropper is a faculty member in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on advancing knowledge of human behavior related to the sustainability of social-ecological systems. She is particularly interested in studying how values change over space and time, shaping the ways in which people adapt to environmental change. Her work aims to understand the social dimensions of environmental issues, contributing to more effective and inclusive conservation and resource management strategies.

Research topics

• Geography
• Business
• Sociology
• Environmental resource management
• Environmental science
• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Environmental planning
• Marketing
• Internet privacy
• Public relations
• Natural resource economics
• Medicine
• Data science
• Ecology
• Economics

Selected publications

• Corrigendum to “Perceived equity dimensions of agricultural carbon markets in the US Midwest” [J. Rural Stud., 121 (2026) 103940]

  Journal of Rural Studies · 2026-01-25

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Mapping the Flow of Conservation Information across Wisconsin Farming Communities: Evidence from a Social Network Analysis

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Perceived equity dimensions of agricultural carbon markets in the US Midwest

  Journal of Rural Studies · 2025-11-21

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Public and private sectors are developing initiatives for carbon capture to mitigate climate change and meet net-zero emissions pledges. Capital markets facilitating the trading of credits for soil organic carbon have the potential to sequester carbon and provide monetary benefits to farmers, but critics contend this approach could exacerbate inequalities among farmers. We use recognition and distributive justice frames to analyze farmer perceptions of access and outcomes in voluntary carbon markets. Drawing on interviews with thirty farmers in the Midwestern United States (Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin) and fourteen carbon market project developers, we argue many carbon credit programs reinforce perceived inequities within the US agricultural system and between on-farm and off-farm actors. Our respondents indicated carbon market actors tend to recognize large-scale, highly capitalized, conventional corn and soybean operations managed by white men, limiting market access for marginalized farmers and small farms. Exclusion of a range of farmers is perceived to perpetuate distributive injustice as carbon markets channel financial benefits to a narrow range of “winners” in the energy transition. Farmers specifically identified the additionality requirement as the greatest barrier to market access for small and marginalized farmers. Ultimately, farmers contend that creating more equitable carbon markets requires first and foremost recognizing the diversity of farmer identities and farm types. • Interviews identify the relationship between carbon markets and rural inequality. • Farmers are concerned markets will intensify capital accumulation in rural areas. • Large farmers have more market access than small and underrepresented farmers. • Project developers and credit buyers are perceived to benefit from on-farm labor. • Equitable markets need diverse recruitment and payments for legacy practices.

  PublisherDOI

• State-level variation drives wolf management in the northwestern United States

  Environmental Research Ecology · 2025-01-29 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Recovered and recovering carnivore populations in Europe and North America can pose risks to some human livelihoods like livestock ranching. These risks can motivate wildlife managers to lethally remove carnivores—decisions that are often controversial and poorly understood. We used a 13-year dataset on gray wolves ( Canis lupus ) in the northwestern United States (Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon) to analyze how social, demographic, and environmental variables influence lethal removal of wolves at the county and state levels. We found that state-level differences are a major driver of lethal removal decisions at the county level. The percentage of federally owned and protected lands was also positively correlated with lethal removal. Predation of livestock by wolves was not significantly correlated with wolf removals in Idaho, but was in Montana, Washington, and Oregon. Our results stress the need to make transparent the process by which recovering populations of carnivores are managed to enhance the legitimacy of management policies.

  PublisherDOI

• Market approaches to sequester soil organic carbon on farms: justifications and suggested transformations from embedded market actors

  Agriculture and Human Values · 2025-02-25 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Mapping the social-ecological suitability of agroforestry in the US Midwest

  Environmental Research Letters · 2025-01-16 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Agroforestry practices offer the potential to increase agricultural sustainability, but their adoption remains limited, especially in some of the world’s most highly productive regions like the United States (US) Midwest. Integrated assessment of the environmental, social, and economic factors that determine agroforestry’s potential benefits and social acceptability is needed to effectively target agroforestry expansion. To meet this need, we used geospatial multi-criteria decision analysis to map agroforestry’s suitability across the US Midwest. We mapped priority areas where agroforestry is expected to reduce the risk of environmental degradation, provide productive tree growth, and be socially and economically viable. We show that integrating social and economic factors dramatically shifted priorities compared to an environmental-only suitability assessment. Using COMET-Planner, we estimated that expanding agroforestry to the top 5% most suitable land from our analysis (totaling 18.3 million acres) has the potential to store 43 [29–58] Mt of CO 2 e per year over the business-as-usual scenario. Our integrated approach can help stakeholders identify target areas for agroforestry and provides a theoretical foundation for interdisciplinary suitability mapping that can be adapted for use in other global regions.

  PublisherDOI

• Social capital and adaptation to wildfire in southern Greece

  Ecology and Society · 2025-01-01 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Wildfires are exacerbated by climate change and are a growing concern globally. Adaptation to climate change impacts including increased wildfires requires action at individual, community, and government levels. In this paper, we use the concept of social capital, or the norms and networks that enable collective action, as a lens to understand wildfire adaptation. Specifically, we assess the roles of different types of social capital in fire risk mitigation compared to fire response in southern Greece, which has experienced numerous large wildfires in recent years. To this end, we conducted 33 interviews with 44 rural residents and policy actors. Our findings illuminate a complex relationship between social capital and fire adaptation. We found that overall, social capital, a critical variable in environmental hazard adaptation, has been eroded by depopulation of rural areas and government management characterized by shifts in leadership and a culture of clientelism (or political quid-pro-quo). Bonding social capital influences villagers’ participation in volunteer fire brigades. However, bonding social capital is not sufficient to support proactive preparation for increasingly severe wildfires. Linking social capital, specifically between villagers and government officials, is often undermined by lack of trust and the failure of outsiders to utilize local knowledge. Our findings build on other cases in environmental hazards adaptation, where proactive preparation is often neglected in comparison to response. Additionally, our research adds to understandings of how low trust in state actors affects social capital in the face of environmental hazards.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Using values-informed mental models to understand farmer, water manager, and scientist use and perceptions of hydrologic models

  Journal of Hydrology · 2025-03-23 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  • Decision Support Systems are increasingly produced to support water management. • Science and nature values affect when and how that information is used for decisions. • Values for accuracy influence water decisions the most, followed by stewardship. Decision-support systems using environmental data and models are increasingly common, but not always adopted by the intended end-users. This disconnect may be partly due to different values related to nature and the scientific process. In this study, we assessed whether and to what extent real-world water decisions, supported by groundwater flow models, are influenced by epistemic values (scientific values including testability and usability) and nature values. We conducted and analyzed semi-structured interviews of ten water managers, five hydrologic model developers, and seven agricultural producers within a Groundwater Management District in south-central Kansas overlying part of the US High Plains aquifer. We then constructed values-informed mental models related to each group’s decisions. The epistemic value for accuracy was the most important value influencing water management decisions, especially short-term operational and long-term planning decisions. Stewardship was the second most important value influencing water management decisions, especially decisions related to conservation. Participants from all three stakeholder groups mentioned most values in interviews, but model developers mentioned accuracy, methodological soundness and testability significantly more often than agricultural producers and water managers. Our results highlight differences—and commonalities—in how decision-support systems influence decisions across types of users, as well as the importance of acknowledging the role individual values play in environmental policy decisions. Incorporating these insights into modeling processes and communications can help hydrologic modelers and data producers better align their work with the decision needs of end-users.

  PublisherDOI

• Improving agri-environmental policy design: farmer and administrator insights on voluntary conservation programs

  Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · 2025-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Abstract Worldwide, voluntary agri-environmental programs encourage farmers to adopt environmentally friendly practices. However, the impact of program design on farmers’ participation and long-term practice persistence is unclear. Toward improving program effectiveness, this study illustrates the value of a tailored practice-specific approach to agri-environmental program design. We present a case study of programs promoting cover crops, a conservation practice that can improve soil health and reduce nutrient pollution, drawing from five focus groups with farmers (n = 20) and program administrators (n = 14) in the U.S. Midwest (Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana). Participants perceived cover crop programs to best support farmers is characterized by flexibility and minimal transaction costs. Participants suggested a more data-driven approach to program design particularly for understanding the farm-level economic implications of cover crop use. Integrating financial planning and participatory research components alongside traditional financial incentives and technical assistance were proposed as valuable strategies to enhance program design and broaden the appeal of conservation practices like cover crops.

  PublisherDOI

• Herbicide-resistance management: a common pool resource problem?

  Weed Science · 2024-02-20 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Herbicide resistance is often viewed as a complex problem in need of innovative management solutions. Because of the transboundary mobility of many weeds, resistance to herbicides is also viewed as a community-scale issue. Consequently, the idea of greater coordination among resource users—especially growers—is often promoted as a management approach. Recently, scholars have framed herbicide resistance as a commons problem in need of collective action. Specifically, social scientists have explored the utility of adopting bottom-up, community-based approaches to help solve the growing problem of herbicide resistance through a framework for interpreting the commons known as common pool resource theory. This article analyzes how herbicide resistance fits—and fails to fit—within common pool resource theory and offers an updated conceptual framework from which to build future work. We argue that the application of common pool resource theory to herbicide-resistance management is underdeveloped, and approaches based on this theory have shown little success. The relevance of common pool resource theory for informing herbicide-resistance management is less settled than existing scholarship has suggested, and other frameworks for approaching transboundary resource problems—such as co-production of knowledge and participatory action research—warrant consideration.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Samuel C. Zipper

  United States Geological Survey

  106 shared

• Andrea E. Brookfield

  University of Waterloo

  104 shared

• John C. Hammond

  104 shared

• Hoori Ajami

  103 shared

• Tom Gleeson

  University of Victoria

  103 shared

• Howard W. Reeves

  Upper Midwest Water Science Center

  102 shared

• Jillian M. Deines

  Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

  101 shared

• William Farmer

  101 shared

Labs

• van Riper Research GroupPI