Firewood Month 2021 Partner Graphics Awards

We are excited to announce the Don’t Move Firewood campaign’s very first Firewood Month Partners Graphics Awards! We are so grateful for the amazing work our partners do to protect forests across North America, as well as the effort they put into amplifying the important messaging on best firewood practices. We were thrilled to see so many social media posts and e-newsletters sporting Don’t Move Firewood graphics, hashtags, and messaging. In addition to sharing our outreach materials, we saw many of you post your own awesome pictures, graphics, and infographics during the 2021 Firewood Month. And while they were all pretty great, we would like to highlight what we considered to be the best of the best!

So, without further ado…

The 2021 Partner Award: Best Firewood Month Infographic goes to Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources!
Shared by PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources on October 29, 2021 via Facebook and Twitter

 

The 2021 Partner Award: Most Compelling Firewood Month Visuals goes to BOTH Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry AND Minnesota Department of Agriculture
Image created by Minnesota Department of Agriculture and Shared, with permission, by Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry on October 7, 2021 via Facebook

 

The 2021 Partner Award: Best Pest Profile with Call to Action goes to Mississippi Bug Blues
Shared by Mississippi Bug Blues on October 25, 2021 via Facebook and Twitter

 

Finally, the 2021 Partner Honorable Mention: Best Firewood Month Turn of Phrase goes to Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service! This was posted during Firewood Month LAST year (2020), but we loved it so much we decided to give it an award anyway.
Shared by the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service on October 19, 2020 via Facebook

 

Thank you to all our partners for sharing your important and creative content; these messages encourage best firewood practices, protect forests from harmful forest pests and diseases, and work together to create a comprehensive Firewood Month approach across the country. We would not have the impact we do without YOUR help and support. And remember, while Firewood Month 2021 may be over, your firewood choices matter all year long!

Campaigning for Conservation

Guest blog by Laurel Downs, The Nature Conservancy

My friend’s backyard pile of very likely pest-infested firewood. Photo credit: L. Downs, The Nature Conservancy. Wood credit: Bobby Kresch. Now don’t you go movin that firewood, Bob.

 

The overall goal of the Don’t Move Firewood campaign boils down to protecting trees in North America from destructive pests and diseases. We want to heighten awareness around the fact that infested or contaminated firewood is one of the most common ways by which invasive forest pests spread to new areas. We provide direct and simple information on 1) how firewood can spread pests, 2) the pests themselves, and 3) what practices we recommend to avoid spreading pests on firewood. This is a classic educational effort to change human behavior; people can help protect trees by making responsible firewood choices.

Simple, right?

If only. Turns out people are much more complicated than that, and stacks on stacks of research suggests that information alone is not enough. A science communication strategy that assumes people will alter their behavior with new information – the knowledge-deficit model – often falls short because factors such as values, attitudes, social norms (essentially the desire to fit in), and socioeconomic circumstances are key drivers of human behavior. To be effective, our campaign’s messaging needs to not only inform, but appeal to the wildly variable population that our campaign aims to reach- basically anyone and everyone who ever uses firewood.

Example of a firewood graphic we use to promote local firewood use. Check out our Resource Library for more.

 

Thus emerges the profoundly important old adage “it’s not what you say, but how you say it.” Except, now we know that it also matters when you say it. And how often. And in what context. And with what graphics. And on what platform… because merely getting the word out morphs into somewhat of a monumental task when you consider the competitive digital landscape the whole world now deals with. Ads, current events, politics, social media, and other modern-day distractions bombard the senses of just about everyone with an internet connection. The complex algorithms that generate much of what we see day-to-day online can be an obstacle as well, since our conservation-based communications are likely to disproportionately reach people who are already conservation-minded. Many of the folks we reach may already know about the risks involved with moving firewood. In other words, we might be preaching to the choir… and that wastes time and money. We need to reach everyone in the big tent original audience- i.e., all firewood users.

Whew. So many obstacles. How do we cope? Why do we try?

Well, because anyone who is passionate about conservation knows we’ve got to keep on truckin’. It’s true that passing along the straight-forward notion of using local firewood presents a challenge in and of itself. It’s also true that even when our message manages to escape the void, bounce off the choir, and finally inform a new firewood user, it may not change their behavior. But it’s a crucial first step. And in our efforts to navigate the complexity of the human psyche, we put painstaking thought into Every. Single. Word. (Sometimes every syllable! Check out our Facebook page for our new “Hump Day Haiku” series every Wednesday. It’s fire.)

Thankfully, we’re not making our communication choices in the dark. Many years of research help inform our wording, the audiences we try to reach, and even what sorts of graphics we use. Most recently, the Don’t Move Firewood campaign collaborated with researchers at Clemson University to help better understand their big public polling datasets on the most effective phrasing and messengers for a positive response among the public; that research should be published soon so that everyone can benefit from the in-depth look it provides. Additionally, this past summer the Don’t Move Firewood campaign hired summer analysts who spent countless hours researching, synthesizing, and translating stiff regulatory information into succinct summaries so folks can quickly learn the firewood rules and recommendations in their area or destination (see our Firewood Map). We also regularly reach out to diverse stakeholders and coordinate with governmental, non-governmental, academic, and industry partners alike to amplify important firewood messaging as well as keep our information up-to-date.

We regularly collaborate with partner outreach campaigns like PlayCleanGo and Hungry Pests to communicate responsible recreation practices.

 

Ultimately, while the inner workings of our outreach campaign are complex, we try to keep our message as simple as possible. Prevention is our best defense against invasive species, and everyone has the power to take preventative measures to protect our forests. For starters, please… Don’t Move Firewood.