Editor’s note: Liz Davy works with the Greater Yellowstone Fire Action Network, and is a member of both FAC Net and our sister network, the Fire Learning Network. In this blog, Liz shares some insights she gained from a gathering last fall focused on creating consistent messaging about fire for a range of themes and audiences. Special thanks to Liz Rank from the Nature Conservancy and Laurel Kays from the Fire Learning Network for editing and content development assistance.

Working across partnerships to consistently communicate messaging about fire is a common challenge among fire practitioners. To address this issue in our landscape, Greater Yellowstone Fire Action Network (GYFAN) hosted a workshop in October 2022 to develop consistent messaging for our region.

To begin, we developed some common themes that resonated with all of us: Smoke, Wildfire Mitigation, and Resilient Landscapes (specifically referring to landscapes dependent on the use of fire).

Several seasoned Public Information Officers (PIOs) with extensive experience developing and implementing fire messaging provided us with tips from the trade. Lori Iverson (retired from Grand Teton National Park), Sarah Wheeler, and Lesley Williams (both Forest Service employees) provided the following guide for developing messaging and coached us through the process.

Five Messaging Tips:

1. Know your audience. 
   • Simplifying language isn’t dumbing things down. It’s using accessible, plain language to teach a concept.
   • Readers will be asking “what does this have to do with me?” Make sure to answer that question with your messaging.
2. Think of an analogy that will resonate with your audience(s).
   • You may need to create more than one key message. You may need a number of them sent out in different ways with different people in mind.
3. Focus on what the audience will hear vs. what you say.
   • Put the focus on the receiver, not the sender. What we want to say and we want them to know should compliment and meet what your audience wants to hear.
   • Listen to people’s concerns before you start a project so you can craft messages to address concerns, rumors, doubts or misinformation.
4.  Show you are a human. Develop a relationship.
   • Show you care and show you listen. What will make your audience feel at ease, and feel like the message is for them?
   • Make people feel important by including them in the conversation.
5. Show people what you’re talking about. Use images as much as you can.
   • Take photos of all aspects of your work. Include the audience in the process as much as possible.

Additional Tips for Crafting a Message

• Be mindful of directives. Rather than “develop an emergency plan”, say “you may want to consider….” Instead of “become aware of some of your local resources”, say “you have some great local resources available to you.”
• Keep your focus, don’t try to cover too many topics at once. Basics first, and repeat them often.
• Just like acronyms and abbreviations, make sure your audience understands slogans.
• Your writing language is more formal than your speaking language.

Applying Messaging Tips to your Work

Seem easy? Not so much. During our workshop, we all struggled with avoiding acronyms and jargon, explaining technical ideas in plain language, and developing messaging for all sectors of a community.

In order to develop our messaging, we broke into groups to draft ideas for each of the three themes (Smoke, Wildfire Mitigation, and Resilient Landscapes) and for several different audiences. This was intended to provide Greater Yellowstone Fire Action Network members with core messages for each theme and audience so local messengers could refine the general message to their community and situation. We will continue to refine these messages as people learn more about how effective they are and how various sectors of a community react.

Small group breakouts to develop messages. Photo by Liz Davy, GYFAN

Collective Smoke Draft Message. Photo by Liz Davy, GYFAN

Messages from Our Workshop

This was a very challenging exercise, but well worth the effort. Everyone present contributed to the final draft product. We look forward to road testing these messages and sharing more lessons learned.

Smoke – Key message:

Smoke is inevitable, we live in a fire prone ecosystem. There are things you can do to minimize impacts on your health, safety and lifestyle.

Fire on the Landscape – Key message:

Wildfire is an important part of the ecology of this area. Fire has been and will continue to be a major disturbance on this landscape. This complicated landscape and its prominent features such as vegetation, wildlife habitat, and riparian areas have all been influenced by wildfire.

Mitigating Wildfire in Greater Yellowstone Communities – General message:

We live in a fire prone ecosystem. Fire visits our area frequently in the grassland and shrublands and infrequently in forested areas. We should be prepared for the inevitable and prepare long before the fire event. [XX organization or collaborative or partnership or fire department] has a robust fire mitigation program available to you, your subdivision, your business, etc. [Provide contact information for that entity.]

****