Appendix D.
Common themes in natural resource stakeholder feedback on information needs

            The article cited below was just published as this report was being finalized.  Even though it presents stakeholder feedback from a different context (forestry in Oklahoma), and from a different method (a scored individual interview process rather than the one day group discussion we used), the parallels between their findings and the New England pest management stakeholder feedback are striking.  Comparing their results and the feedback we collected highlights and reinforces common themes in public education and the need for technical information that addresses natural resource management.

            The excerpt below is from “A Case Study of Stakeholder Needs for Extension Education”, Kathleen D. Kelsey and S. Christian Mariger, Journal of Extension 40(2), April 2002.  Online at http://www.joe.org/joe/2002april/rb2.html

“Stakeholder Recommendations

The researchers collected recommendations on how the academic department could better serve the needs of its stakeholders. The 79 recommendations fell into four broad categories, including:

·        42 recommendations for disseminating research results and other information more effectively,

·        23 recommendations for reaching target audiences,

·        10 recommendations for improving Extension services, and

·        4 recommendations calling for greater cooperation between the university and other organizations that serve the forestry industry.

Fifty-three percent of the recommendations were suggestions on how the department could promote and disseminate information to its stakeholders. The stakeholders specifically commented on creating publications for lay-audiences as well as using e-mail, listserves, and the Internet to broadcast information. It was recommended that the faculty create media-rich interactive materials such as a CD-ROM that could be used independently of the Internet for those who choose not to learn online. Stakeholders also asked for content-specific workshops, demonstration plots, and field days.

Stakeholders recommended that Extension target school children, small landowners, forestry professionals, and the legislature for its research and education programs. Respondents stressed that all citizens needed to know more about natural resource management and the economic importance of forestry as it is the third largest commodity in the state. It was also pointed out that Extension needed to educate the public, especially children, about natural resource management to counter environmental propaganda that has permeated school textbooks without being certified as research-based knowledge.”