Knowledge and Attitudes about Fire Among Southerners

Individuals act based on their knowledge and attitudes.  This section defines the terms "knowledge" and "attitudes."  It describes some research tools that could help land managers understand the knowledge and attitudes of people in nearby communities.  There are also discussions of the factors affecting Southerners knowledge and attitudes; Southerners attitudes about prescribed fire and about wildfire; Southerners attitudes about creating defensible space; and the links between tourism and perceptions of fire in the South.

Land management is a social process -- a combination of science and peoples’ interpretations of science which are based on knowledge and attitudes (Cheng 2002).  Knowledge, attitudes, and aesthetics are issues on public lands because they influence public acceptability of management activities (Steel, List, and Shindler 1994).  Among non-industrial private landowners, knowledge and attitudes influence land management decisions.  In other words, the decisions that landowners make are based on their objectives and beliefs.  People form opinions about fire and evaluate fire management practices based on their knowledge and attitudes (Tarrant, Porter, and Cordell 2002).  Values (standards that an individual or group use to determine what is desirable or undesirable) related to fire, nature, and society also influence public opinions of fire and land management activities and policies such as thinning and prescribed burning (Tarrant, Porter, and Cordell 2002).  First-hand experience with fire, beliefs about ecology, and perceptions of the environment may also impact attitudes about fire.

Fire is a fundamental dynamic in southern ecosystems.  Wildfires are uncontrolled fires in forests, grasslands, and scrublands often caused by lightning, but also by human carelessness and arson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildfire).  Prescribed fire is the skilled application of fire under a particular set of weather and fuel conditions to achieve one or more specific natural resource objectives.  Prescribed fire is one of the most important tools in the South for hazardous fuel reduction, wildlife management, range management, and ecosystem restoration and maintenance.  In many southern ecosystems, land managers attempt to minimize uncontrolled wildfires by managing fuels (e.g., dry leaves, fallen branches) which can be done with the use of a variety of mechanical and chemical methods such as mowing and herbicides.

All methods of fuel reductions have the best chance for success when managers understand the factors affecting public acceptance of the practice.  To be sustainable, fuel management programs need the public’s support (Cheng 2002) especially in wildland urban interface zones where community participation is crucial to the outcomes of fuels management.  Managers’ objectives will be much easier to accomplish if the public supports a fuels management plan.  An understanding of public knowledge and attitudes helps managers define strategies, and establish goals and policies (Tarrant, Porter, and Cordell 2002).  Managers who are familiar with public knowledge and attitudes are better equipped to communicate with stakeholders, and provide adequate responses to the questions, objections and concerns of the public, particularly at the wildland-urban interface (Winter and others 2002). 

It may be possible to reduce economic losses of wildfires, if people support prescribed burning and other fuels management strategies like the creation of defensible space and the use of less-flammable construction materials.

Many stakeholders contribute to the evolving and sometimes contentious negotiations that determine the character of forests, grasslands, and other natural resources (Hull 2004).  An example of the evolution of knowledge and attitudes among stakeholders is the shift that has taken place during the past twenty years from anthropocentric to biocentric attitudes about forest management, though it is not clear how this shift affects attitudes about fire.  Knowledge, attitudes, aesthetic preferences, and values change over time and one of the biggest challenges for managers is to adjust forestry practices in response to those changes (Tarrant, Porter, and Cordell 2002).