Factors Affecting Southerners’ Knowledge and Attitudes

The South is a culturally diverse place where people with different backgrounds and understandings of the world live.  The result is that Southerners have a variety of opinions about fire.   Most people agree that wildfires are undesirable.  A persons amount of education and exposure to fire affect his/her awareness of prescribed fire as something distinct from wildfire.  People’s experience with wildfires and their perceived risk from any fire influence their attitude about the use of prescribed fires.

Age and experience affect how people perceive wildfire threats.  People who have personally experienced wildfires and people over 65 feel that wildfire is more of a threat than people who have not experienced wildfire and younger people.  Experience with prescribed fires and wildland fires vary by place, type of homeowner (seasonal, permanent), and type of experience (fuel management, fire education, fire profession, seeing flames or smoke, observing the aftermath, personal injury, property damage). 

Southerners’ attitudes and knowledge about fire may vary by location and length of residence.  Place of residence (rural, urban, or wildland urban interface zones) influences the importance of scenic quality for people – rural Southerners value scenic quality more than urban Southerners – but does not influence their attitudes about other forest values such as wood quality, cultural and natural heritage, and clean air.  Length of residency and land ownership versus non-ownership do not significantly influence attitudes about forest practices according to some studies (Tarrant, Porter, and Cordell 2002).  Other studies suggest that the amount of time a person has lived in or spends in a place influences his opinion about fire: young people, retirees, multi-generational residents, urban escapees, weekenders, and vacationers may all have different understandings of fire (Green and others 1996; Vogt 2002).  Homeowners who have different levels of investment in and commitment to an area have different attitudes about fire management (Vogt 2002).  Permanent residents tend to be more concerned about economic issues (namely, jobs) than about local land use policies (Green and others 1996).  In contrast, seasonal homeowners in wildland urban interface zones tend to prefer the “natural” look of the area and be more concerned about strict land use controls (Vogt 2002) which could affect their attitudes about prescribed fire and wildfire control (Williams and Stewart 1998).

Homeowners’ preferences for fuel management methods and governmental fire policies are influenced by their perceptions of fire risks.  In other words, a person’s perception of fire risks to his health or personal property will affect his opinion about fire and the ways he manages his property (Vogt, Winter, Fried 2002).  A person would be less likely to have a positive view of fire if he believes that, if a wildfire were to ignite near his property, his house will burn down or that the smoke from a prescribed burn will aggravate a loved one’s asthma.  Psychological, economic, and other factors affect the perception of fire hazards including knowledge levels, ideas about communal vs. individual obligations and behaviors, institutional arrangements (prescribed burning laws, enforcement, agencies, distribution of information), and sources of risk (Winter and Fried 2000).

The news media can influence a person’s perceptions of fire (NWCG 2004).  Many Americans learned to be afraid of fire, to avoid fire, and to prevent fire from fire prevention and fire education campaigns in the 20^th century (NWCG 2004).  At the same time, many people are fascinated with fire and are interested in learning more about it.