Fuels Planning: Science Synthesis and

Integration

Social Issues Fact Sheet: 4

Three Critical Topics to Cover When

Talking About Hazards

United States

Department

of Agriculture

Forest Service

Rocky Mountain

Research Station

Research Note

RMRS-RN-21-4-WWW

September 2004

The amount of science applicable to the management of wildfire hazards is increasing daily. In addition, the attitudes of landowners and policymakers about

fire and fuels management are changing. These two facts make the task of comCommunicating with homeowners about the risk of

living in an area with heavy fuel loads can be challenging

(photo credit: V. Sturtevant).

municating about wildfire hazards

more challenging than ever before.

Messages to the public will be

more effective if the focus is on

(1) potential losses, (2) the chance

that losses will take place within a

certain amount of time, and (3) how

to cut losses. These three keys to communicating about hazards could be

thought of as the legs on which a hazards education initiative rests. Without any one of the three legs, an initiative could teeter and collapse.

The Three Critical Topics

1. Describe potential losses.

Generally, people have trouble imagining the impact a hazard could have on their community,

home, or workplace, so assisting them with descriptions of the hazard, pictures, scenarios, and

computer-based maps can be helpful. The essence

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

Pacific Northwest

Research Station

The information for this

fact sheet was provided

by Dr. Dennis Mileti and

staff at the National Hazards Center in Boulder,

Colorado.

of this task is to overcome peopleís tendency to believe that it canít happen here

or it wonít happen to me. The more relevant the description to the audienceís

situation, the more likely they will pay attention to it. A good communicator can

find ìthe local angleî in any hazard or disasteróeven in a far-off landóand

work with it.

2. Discuss the odds about when the losses will take place.

Even when people understand that fire could, indeed, happen here, they might still need help accepting that it could

happen to them during a relevant timeframeófor example,

in the next 10 years or during the lifetime of their mortgage.

Almost no one but mathematicians and professional gamblers really understands odds, but most people will want to

know the likelihood of a hazard occurring in their neighborhood in an uncomplicated way, and in a smallish number of
The Fuels Planning fact sheets are based on preliminary findings. Information from fact sheets will be synthesized in an upcoming publication.

useful in communicating with homeowners about fire

hazards.

Appropriate assistance may take many forms: a list of

specific activities for minimizing wildfire risk in the community; a how-to video for homeowners; evacuation

guidelines for a school; a business resumption planning

process for a corporation or a city government; encouragement and help from a neighborhood emergency response team; or recommended policy changes for a water system.

Other fact sheets in this series will be available in the

forthcoming months.

years. Probability estimates will not, in themselves, accomplish much with the public, but the information will

help present the idea of uncertainty, an important concept for communicating about

hazards.

3. Explain how to cut losses.

A person with a clear picture of

his or her possible losses will

benefit from timely suggestions

and directions on how to reduce

them. Without these blueprints, people can fall prey to

a fatalistic inertia. A number of programs on fire prevention have already been developed that might prove

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