Choosing What to Believe About Forests: Differences Between Professional and Non-Professional Evaluative Criteria

This study examined the process of information exchange between natural resource management professionals and forest owners to determine whether and how professionals could improve their ability to persuade forest owners to adopt recommended stewardship practices. Using the inductive ‘grounded theory’ method of qualitative research, 109 stakeholders throughout the State of Washington, USA were interviewed and asked to discuss their information sources and preferences. The study findings reveal that many natural resource management professionals may not correctly anticipate how forest owners evaluate new forest management information. Professionals in the study typically chose and evaluated new information on the basis of established standards of scientific credibility, including peer review or the professional reputation of the individuals and institutions conducting the research or publishing the information. Most professionals expected forest owners would do the same. Forest owners with non-professional backgrounds, however, were often unfamiliar with or unimpressed by such credentials, and often used a very different evaluative screen. Willingness to adopt information was greatly influenced by their social impressions of the individuals delivering it. When a professional pressed for an ‘expert to non-expert’ relationship or did not establish a mutually respectful interpersonal learning atmosphere, non-professional forest owners frequently resisted not only that individual, but also the information they provided. This paper links these findings to androgogy (adult learning theory), and demonstrates that the natural resource professionals most effective with forest owners are those providing what the established literature describes as classic elements of a good adult learning environment. These elements include empathy, mutual respect, non-hierarchical information exchange, praxis, emphasis on experiential rather than passive learning, and evidence that tangible results may be expected. An improved understanding of the fundamentals of the adult learning process can be expected to enhance the effectiveness of natural resource professionals in information exchange with forest owners.