U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

Talking to the Media

Joint NY/New England Society of American Foresters Annual Meeting

February 1, 2013Meagan Racey, public affairs specialist

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

Why? When? Who? What? and …

how to make these conversations benefit your work.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

If you don’t say it, they can’t print it.

Which would you prefer?

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

When?

1) On their deadline

2) On your time

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

1) Give priority to the news.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

Allow yourself to get prepared.

Get this information:

•Name, organization•Topic, players, needs•Deadline, contact info

Put down the phone.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

2) Reach out to reporters.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

Who are you talking to?

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

Who are you talking to?

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

3) Be prepared.

1) The issue.2) Background.3) The players. 4)Your message. 5)Materials.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

1) Young forests provide essential homes for a

large variety of native wildlife, and we are losing both at a rapid rate in the Northeast.

2) Managing young forests creates aesthetic, recreational, and economic opportunities for people now and into the future.

Messages

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

1) How? Part of the solution is strategic, carefully planned and carried out forest management. Landowners and loggers can responsibly harvest stands of trees, and use prescribed burning, and mowing to create and maintain patches of young native forests within largely mature forest landscapes.

2) Why do that? The natural processes that have historically created young forest habitats can no longer have the same impact on our landscape that they once did due to human development, population density, dam building, and wildfire suppression. Forest management practices mimic these natural processes.

Agenda: Messages, proof, anticipated questions

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

Tucked in among suburban sprawl at the border of Albany, Colonie and Guilderland, 3,000 acres of pine barrens are becoming a kind of avian rest stop for an increasing number of birds that need a very special kind of landscape — one that's disappearing elsewhere in New York.

The Albany Pine Bush Preserve is an emerging example of a so-called "shrubland" that certain bird species need to breed and thrive, said Neil Gifford, the preserve's conservation director.

Dominated by stunted trees and low bushes, it also provides a layover in autumn for migratory birds moving through to wintering grounds. "The preserve is functioning as a kind of stop-and-shop for these birds, offering food and cover," said Gifford.

Since 2007, more than 1,000 birds at the preserve have been captured and banded for study. "We have found there are more than 70 species here so far," he said. "Each year, we find about a dozen new species. The longer we do this, the more species we are finding.”

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

4) Help them tell the story.

The attractiveness of the Pine Bush to a thriving bird population shows preserve officials are on solid scientific footing in a two-decade-old program to restore pine barren habitat to its native shrubland, Gifford said.

This restoration is done through cutting and controlled fires to remove invasive species like black cherry trees and aspens, two trees whose growth can squeeze out pitch pines and other Pine Bush plants. For much of the area's history since its creation during the last Ice Age, fire came naturally from lightning strikes that burned back vegetation.

Now, fires are set routinely by wildlife experts to fill that need, which allows scrub oaks and pitch pines to dominate the shrubby, sandy terrain. Several hundred acres have been restored in this fashion so far.

One of the birds that has been studied, the small, gray-and-yellow prairie warbler, returns to the Pine Bush each summer to breed. That return rate is running at about 60 percent, which shows "our management efforts are bearing fruit," Gifford said.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

4) Help them tell the story.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

• Do appear helpful.

• Do stay on track.

• Do handle controversy with care.

• Don’t ask to see the story. Do ask for a link when it goes live and follow up.

• Do rely on your partners.

• Don’t talk about what you don’t know.

• Do keep it simple.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

Grab the reins and tell the story yourself.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

If you don’t say it, they can’t print it.

1)Give priority to the news. 2)Reach out to reporters. 3)Be prepared.4)Help them tell the story.