communication strategies for working in the urban-rural interface

Communication Strategies for Working in the Urban-Rural Interface

Paul D. RiesOregon Department of Forestry

and Oregon State University

Oregon State University Oregon Department of Forestry USDA Forest Service

Why bother?

• Public agencies need public support

• Resource management is more successful with public support

• Public support is based on understanding resource goals and techniques

• Understanding is based on communication


Challenges in the interface

• Audiences are more varied• Issues may be contentious• Audiences may not have experience or background knowledge• Issues involve many aspects

All this makes communication challenging!


Discussion Question

What wildland-urban interface issues are particularly challenging to communicate? Why?


What is communication?• Communication is the

successful transmission of thoughts or ideas, without significant distortion, so that understanding is achieved.

• This requires – effective transmission– reception– input into mental structures


Common barriers to effectiveness

• Transmission– Sender not credible or trustworthy

• Reception– Message lacks clarity (language or speed) – Receiver has experience, prior knowledge– Receiver beliefs and attitudes conflict

• Input to mental structures– Message is irrelevant– Receiver is not listening


Easy strategies to improve communication

• Choose an appropriate, well respected authority on topic as “sender”

• Create a message that is easy to understand; use appropriate language

• Make the receiver comfortable

• Use the right tool


Tips to effective communication

• Effective communication helps your audience build a mental model in their heads

• Connects new information to what they already know

• Adds detail, examples• Increases flexibility• Engages them


Good communicators

• Trustworthy• Engaging• Care about what

the audience cares about

• AccessibleElementary students watch their computer screen to learn about this turtle


Earning trust

• Agency materials should– make a point of acknowledging and

addressing questions and complaints– demonstrate how prior activity

supports a partnership– offer to continue the conversation

• Consider using a partner that is trusted


Communicating Forestry• Your success

depends on your ability to communicate

• Navigating this triangle is crucial to successful communication

Key Messa

ge

Target Audienc

e

Proper Tools


Key Messages• Forests produce

benefits• Trees and forests

provide benefits we can’t live without

• Working forests are an investment in the future

• Fragmentation creates conflict


Language differences• Technical jargon may be a barrier to

your audience• Ask them what they understand• Translate materials to their language

or context

PATHOGEN

STAND

BOLE

SPECIES

UNDERSTORY

?

? ?

?

EVEN-AGE


A good key message is…• Something people can:

– Understand – free of jargon– Relate to – help people see why they should

care– Remember – which means it should be

concise • One that causes people to understand?• One that cause people to respond?


The language of conservation

Public opinion research suggests that some phrases resonate better than others and are better at communicating a conservation message

Not “endangered species” But “wildlife protection”

But “natural areas”

But “agreement”

Not “open space”

Not “easement”

Effective messages instill responsibility, provide information,

support valuesProtect your water supply

Plant the right tree in the right place…

Forests provide benefits we can’t live without

Don’t move firewood


Important techniques, but harder to accomplish

• Avoid saying what audience already knows

• Relate to what audience cares about and is interested in

• Deliver message through medium that audience uses

And so we need to understand the audience!


Target Audiences• Your employer or employees• Your clients or voters• Clients you’d like to have, or

voters whose support you’d like

• Landowners• Decision-makers• Elected officials• The media• Youth• The “general public”


By understanding the audience, we can make sure…

• Sender is appropriate, well respected• Message is clear, not garbled• Message is meaningful and relevant• Information builds on what is known• Misunderstandings are corrected• The right audience is targeted


What can you do?• What are the most important things to find

out about an audience before you plan a program?

• How can you find out that information?


What do you know?• Who is your audience?• What do they care about?• What do they already know about

interface issues?• What values are important? • Where do they go for information?• Who do they trust?


A blooper• SAF Chapter wanted to distribute

new video on forestry careers to teachers

• Invited 100 5th grade teachers to dinner and program

• 4 cameWhat was the problem? The 4th grade curriculum addresses local resources and careers, not 5th grade.

What would have helped: Initial conversation with “audience” could have ensured invitations went to the right teachers.


What do they care about?1. Ask them2. Check the literature3. Some things are universal:

– Children, health, quality family time4. Some things are cultural:

– Privacy, community, convenience, future, frugality

5. Community leaders may have concerns:– Fiscal responsibility, election, media coverage


Why engagement?• Some people want straight, undiluted

information• Others need to be entertained• Most do not want to be told what to

do, even though you want to tell them!

• Try to engage audiences in learning


The Proper Tools• How you say what

you have to say is an important as what you say

• Matching the tool to the audience is a crucial step in good communications


Examples of “old” communication tools• One-on-one meetings

• Workshops• Small group meetings• Presentations• Ceremonies• Surveys

• Personal letters• Memos• Posters• Newsletters• Articles in the press• Annual reports• Brochures

* Just because they are “old”, doesn’t mean we can or should stop using them!

Examples of “new” communication tools

• Videoclips• Podcasts• YouTube channel• Virtual

communities• iTunes• Webinars• Webcasts• Blogs• Wikis

• If you want to communicate trees

to people, you cannot afford to ignore these new tools, nor can you afford to only use these new tools and not the old

ones


Social Media • Blogs• Facebook• MySpace• Twitter• YouTube• LinkedIn• Ning


Social Media – are you keeping up?

• If Facebook were a country, it would be the third most populated in the world

• Flicker hosts 5 billion images• LinkedIn has 100 million

users, 56% from outside the US

• 175 million Twitter users send 95 million Tweets a day


Social Media – Should you keep up?

• If you’re not online, to an entire generation, you don’t exist. They don’t use the phone book or read brochures for information – they go online

• Social media can’t replace your current communication efforts – it must complement them…


Paul D. Ries Urban and Community Forestry Program Manager,

Oregon Dept. of Forestry Urban Forestry Instructor and Extension Specialist,

Oregon State University College of ForestryEmail: [email protected] or [email protected]

Phone: 503/945-7391

communication strategies for working in the urban-rural interface

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