Fuels Planning: Science Synthesis and

Integration

Social Issues Fact Sheet: 8

The ìGolden Ruleî and Other Lessons

on Communicating About Hazards

United States

Department

of Agriculture

Forest Service

Rocky Mountain

Research Station

Research Note

RMRS-RN-21-8-WWW

September 2004

Social Science Team Co-Leads:

Pam Jakes

Sue Barro

USDA Forest Service

North Central Research Station

1992 Folwell Avenue

St. Paul, MN 55108

Fuels planning: Science synthesis and

integration, an interagency research/

management partnership to support

the Ten-Year Fire Plan, led by Russell

T. Graham, RMRS, and Sarah M.

McCaffrey, NCRS.

Synthesizing

Scientific Information

for Fire and Fuels

Project Managers

This is one in a series of fact sheets on communicating about wildland fire. In

other fact sheets, we identified considerations for communicating about hazards, talked about the importance of working locally, and discussed the seven

laws of effective hazard communication. In this fact sheet we introduce the ìGolden

Ruleî of hazard communication and share some final lessons from hazard educators.

The Golden Rule

The ìGolden Ruleî of communicating about hazards is to use windows

of opportunity. All the sophisticated materials and behavior modification

techniques do not have the force of one catastrophe to change what people

think, their behavior, and even public policy, at least in the short term.

During the window of opportunity that opens following a disaster, abundant

information from various sources in the affected location will increase the chances

for changing what people think and how they behave. This is also the case for

people and communities that were not directly impacted by the disaster but experienced it from the mass media.

Use the window of opportunity while you canóthe window isnít open for long

and fleeting interest wanes. Typically, even after a big disaster, people will keep

the hazard high on their big issues list for only 2 to 3 months.

You donít need a catastrophe to create a window of opportunity. Windows of

opportunity for communicating about hazards also open when a new resident

moves into a neighborhood, during Wildland Fire Awareness Week, or any time

when people may be open to new information about wildland fire.

Other Important Lessons

1. Partnerships Work Best. Partnerships work better than any one organization

working alone. High-profile, local organizations with established track records

are important to include as partners.

2. Feature Specialists. Education programs are more effective if they feature

specialists who are experts in the hazard that your education program is about.

3. Adapt Materials to Locals. Adapt and customize information to your audience. For example, if the population you seek to educate has experienced a

disaster in recent history, reference it in your materials.

4. Use Different Ways to Communicate. Use many different forms of communication to increase the chances that your message will be heard. For example,

you may do a mass mailing to local residents, but putting your message on

grocery bags will also help you reach residents and visitors. Be innovative in

selecting several ways to reach people.

The information for this

fact sheet was provided by

Dr. Dennis Mileti and staff

at the Natural Hazards Center in Boulder, Colorado.

Pacific Northwest

Research Station
The Fuels Planning fact sheets are based on preliminary findings. Information from fact sheets will be synthesized in an upcoming publication.

Social Science Team Fact Sheets

Look for fact sheet topics from the Social Science Team including information on developing personal responsibility for fuels reduction, communicating fire hazard, topics for community fire plans, guidelines for

community education, and the ìgolden ruleî for communicating fire

hazard to people.

Fuels Planning: Synthesis and Integration

This fact sheet is one in a series being produced as part of a larger project

supported by the USDA Forest Service to synthesize new knowledge

and information relevant to fire and fuels management. Fact sheets

address topics related to stand structure, environmental impacts, economics, and human responses to these factors. Information in the fact

sheets is targeted for the dry forests of the Inland West, but is often

applicable across broad regions of the country. For more information,

please visit our Web site at:

www.fs.fed.us/fire/tech_transfer/synthesis/synthesis_index

5. Tailor Information for Special Groups. It is a

mistake to assume that any public is homogenous.

Public information should be tailored to the many

groups in an area.

6. Use Multiple Languages. Public hazard education

efforts presented in the multiple languages of the

community work better than those presented in just

one language.

People are much more apt to pay attention to material they feel has direct reference to their local conditions than

material developed for a general audience (complete pictoral guide can be

found at: http://www.firefree.org/

ffreenew/PDF/FireResPlants.pdf).

The California Fire Safe Council maintains a Spanish-language Web site to

increase accessibility of their materials (their Web site can be found at:

http://www.firesafecouncil.org/spanish).

7. Use a Good Mix of the Verbal and the Visual.

Finding the right mix of verbal and visual information

about a risk and what the public should think and do

about it is not always easy, but it increases the success

of public hazards education.