U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region
Talking to the Media
Joint NY/New England Society of American Foresters
Annual Meeting
February 1, 2013
Meagan 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.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region
Which would you prefer?
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
Messages
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.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region
Agenda: Messages, proof,
anticipated questions
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.
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
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.
4) Help them tell the story.
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)
2)
3)
4)
Give priority to the news.
Reach out to reporters.
Be prepared.
Help them tell the story.