Strategies for Communicating About Climate Change Impacts on Public Lands

Abstract

Natural resource agencies in the United States have a huge responsibility to protect and manage public lands as well as effectively communicate with diverse publics about land management issues. One of these issues is how best to deal with the impacts of climate change on our nation’s treasured landscapes. Fortunately, a recent surge of research and theorizing in the social sciences on communication about climate change can inform natural resource communication efforts. What insights can scholars share with communication practitioners and public land managers? What communication principles will help them create effective strategies for communicating about climate change? How can scholars best communicate the complexity of climate change impacts and nuances of changes at landscape scales? To begin to address these questions, Colorado State University researchers, in partnership with the Office of the Governor of the State of Colorado, hosted a 3-day workshop on the challenges and opportunities associated with communicating about climate change on public lands in the western United States. This commentary summarizes ideas generated from workshop discussions, including 9 key messages and 10 key principles for effective climate change communication in a land management context.