The linked documents below are the results of a recent opinion poll on the use of controlled burns for vegetation management. The take home message is that it is important to emphasize key issues in plain language. Keys to successful communication are:

• Safety of people and property;
• benefits primarily to people and secondarily to the ecosystem;
• design and control of burns by teams of experts;
• messages conveyed by people with field experience;
• terms understandable to everyday people

Opinion poll on controlled fire
Lessons learned from opinion poll on the role of controlled fire

The poll results were finalized in 2008 by the Democratic polling firm of Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates (FMM&A) and the Republican polling firm of Public Opinion Strategies (POS).

If air quality forecasters could predict accurate, local weather, then the window for safe controlled burning would be larger.

Here is a link to a news article in the May 2007 Seattle PI describing how controlled fire cuts wildfire risks:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/316717_wildfire23.html

On June 4, 2008, the Spokesman Examiner published an article about the Stevens County Forest Health Project at the following link:
http://www.statesmanexaminer.com/content/view/9338/60/

Prescribed fire is a necessary tool. The Tonasket Ranger District and the North Central Washington Prescribed Fire Council held a controlled burn media event as described in this article in the Oroville Gazette-Tribune on May 16, 2008:
http://www.gazette-tribune.com/main.asp?SectionID=8&SubSectionID=8&ArticleID=352