The Southern Regional Extension Forestry group, representing an association of multiple cooperative extension groups from southeastern land-grant universities, will be hosting an upcoming webinar titled "Prescribed Fire and the Public: Myths and Realities." This seminar will be hosted by Sarah McCaffrey - a research social scientist at the USFS Northern Research Station - and will be applicable to fire managers and natural resource decision-makers accross the United States. Instructions on how to sign up and a description of the webinar, taken from the SREF website, is below.

Note: This webinar will be given using a different webinar platform (Elluminate) than our CFSC webinars (Adobe Connect). If you are planning on watching this or other SREF webinars, make sure to follow the below instructions under "How to Register?"

When: November 16th, 2011

12:00 pm - 1:00 pm (Eastern)
11:00 am - 12:00 pm (Central)
10:00 am - 11:00 am (Mountain)
9:00 am - 10:00 am (Pacific)

What You Will Learn:

As public opinion can shut down the ability to use prescribed fire, it is important for managers to work with the public when they plan to use it. There are many conventional beliefs about prescribed fire that have been discounted by fire researchers. It is therefore useful to have an accurate idea of what people do and don’t think about prescribed fire and what shapes those ideas. This webinar summarizes findings from recent research on the social acceptability of prescribed fire, identifying key variables that influence approval and what role they play. Acceptance of smoke, fear of a burn going out of control, and trust are the key variables that affect the practice of prescribed fire. Tolerance for prescribed burn increases with understanding of its purpose and benefits.

How to Register?

You will be able to register for this webinar beginning 15 minutes prior to its scheduled start time. Space is NOT limited so please plan to join the Webinar 15 minutes early so that you can register.

If you have not participated in one of our (SREF) webinars before, please read our 'How To' instruction sheet How To Use Elluminate. You should also go to www.elluminate.com/support for instructions on setting up your computer. You should do this at least 72 hours in advance of a live webinar in case you have any problems that need to be resolved. For those with firewall blocking, you may require help from your IT support prior to the event in order to connect. If you have any hardware or software issues you can call Elluminate Support at 1-866-388-8674.

If educational credits are being offered for participation in this webinar and you want to receive those credits, you MUST join the webinar on time or you may be disqualified from receiving credit.

For problems using Elluminate, contact Bob Bardon at robert_bardon@ncsu.edu