Narrative: The Start of a Crisis, Crossing the Mississippi

In early April, 2009, officials confirmed some bad news for Minnesota's ash trees. The news originated in Victory, Wisconsin, just across the Mississippi River from Minnesota's Houston County. 


A stand of ash trees in Victory were dying for no apparent reason. When inspected, thousands of little tunnels were revealed under the bark of the trees. These tunnels signaled a new turn of events in the battle for many forests and urban trees near the Mississippi River.


Many small green bugs created the tunnels. As they grew from a larvae stage, the bugs chewed through the phloem, the life-veins of the trees, and emerged out of the bark as full-grown flying beetles with brilliant green wings.  During their short life span they mate and burrow back into the bark to reproduce and die. 


But while their life cycle continues, the tree they call home slowly withers, unable to get the resources needed through its phloem. Within a three years, its foliage is completely gone and its bark, dry and brittle, peels off.


So for Houston County, bordered by Iowa to the south and the Mississippi River to the east, trouble was at the doorstep. Reporters carried the broadcast to every major city in the state. People hundreds of miles north, in Ely, Grand Marais, International Falls, winced at the news. The Emerald Ash Borer had nearly arrived.


The Minnesota Department of Agriculture moved quickly to carry the messages about not moving firewood, and they set a quarantine on any logging or movement of hardwoods in Houston county. County meetings were called and the MDA discussed their future plans to search for the bug in the vicinity. But it took another full year until infected ash trees were found in the county. The MDA gave confirmation of the infestation on April 29th, 2010. 


By then, the flying bug already migrated 175 miles northwest—to the Twin Cities. 




“Forest Protection Reserve Appropriation.” Minnesota Department of Agriculture. 15 Oct. 2009. PDF. <http://www.mda.state.mn.us/news/government/~/media/Files/news/govrelations/fpr-firstquarter2010.ashx>

“MDA Confirms Emerald Ash Borer Infestation In Houston County.” MDA.state.mn.us. Minnesota Department of Agriculture. 29 April 2010. Web. 26 Sept. 2011.

The Question, Whittled Down One Word at a Time

I am studying how cities communicate the human intervention needed to slow the spread of invasive species because I want to find out how to influence people's actions when the environment is in danger in order to help my reader understand how to communicate environmental concerns most effectively.

Is this a practical problem or a conceptual problem? I consider it a practical problem, because we could solve it by doing something: communicating more effectively.

The problem is humans spread emerald ash borer unwittingly. The condition is the bugs will eat many more trees. The cost is many ash trees will die.

The bugs will eat many trees. So what? The death of trees causes us to lose shade, land value, aesthetic appeal, oxygen (at a macro level), and lots of money (because they must be removed).

If it was conceptual, I could say I am studying the communication methods of public offices to the public, because I want to understand what motivates the public to act in ways that serve the interest of the environment. In order to help readers understand how to better communicate to the public.

Either way, I think this falls into the category of applied research.

Formulating the entire question would look like this:

• Topic: I am studying how to most effectively communicate the human intervention needed to slow the spread of invasive species;
• Research Question: because I want to find out how to influence people's actions when the environment is in danger;
• Potential Practical Significance: in order to help my reader understand how to effectively communicate environmental concerns.

I'm not stating who communicates though. My topic should be more specific. I can't study all the communication out there in regard to this. But I could narrow it down by state. Even then, there will be too much information to look at. Maybe I could narrow it down again and study only printed documents or web sites. Let me try the topic again:

• Topic: I am studying how the state of Minnesota communicates (with printed documents) human intervention needed to slow the spread of invasive species.

This would narrow down my search for sure. How many notices or ads has the government put out? They have probably worked with a public relations company. And aren't public relations companies doing their own research on something before they release it? I imagine their ads and fliers when through several focus groups. Maybe I'm over thinking it, but maybe I should have something to compare all this to. For instance, another state? And maybe the human intervention piece should come later. Let me try the topic one more time:

• Topic: I am studying the difference between the effectiveness of printed communication methods between the states of Minnesota and Ohio in regard to the spread of the invasive species, the Emerald Ash Borer.

Hey now ... that's pretty specific. I can see this as a possibility as well. It sure doesn't seem as interesting as studying the web documents though ... well, I'll plow on and see how it changes the rest of the question. 

• Topic: I am studying the difference between the effectiveness of printed communication methods between the states of Minnesota and Ohio in regard to the spread of the Emerald Ash Borer,
• Research Question: because I want to find out how states can communicate better when the population's environment is at stake;
• Potential Practical Significance: in order to help other states present the most effective communicate methods in regard to human intervention of environmental concerns.

Okay. I'm feeling a little better. Although ... I may have difficulty accessing all the printed documents of this type. But I do have immediate access to the websites. And I do have measures to gauge effectiveness of a website from Jakob Nielson and others who have studied website usability. I could follow their lead and look at two main state sites, or even two cities' sites. Let me try one more time, again:

• Topic: I am studying the difference between the effectiveness of website communication between the states of Minnesota and Ohio in regard to the spread of the Emerald Ash Borer,
• Research Question: because I want to find out how states can communicate better in an online environment when the population's environment is at stake;
• Potential Practical Significance: in order to help other states present the most effective communicate methods online in regard to human intervention of environmental concerns.

That allows me to study the sites immediately and not have to wait for printed documents to arrive. I'll visit them now.

The first site that comes up is the joint national site emeraldashborerinfo.net. I'm looking for a state specific site. The MNDNR has one:

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/invasives/terrestrialanimals/eab/index.html

So does the U of M Extension:

http://www.extension.umn.edu/issues/eab/

And so does the MDA:

http://www.mda.state.mn.us/eab

Okay, now let's check Ohio.

The Ohio Department of Ag has one:

http://www.agri.ohio.gov/eab/

The Ohio University Extension has one:

http://ashalert.osu.edu/

And the Ohio DNR has one:

http://www.ohiodnr.com/tabid/5066/default.aspx

Wow! Three parallel sites! Perfect. 

Now, where to start. ... Well, I should start by finding some measure by which to gauge the effectiveness of a website whose purpose is to inform and act (or not act—if someone were moving wood). Then I could apply the measure to the websites, create tables to show which sites are meeting certain requirements that studies prove effective. 

I could do quantitative research as well by getting students to study the sites and gauge their effectiveness in several categories. One could be finding information about saving their ash tree. It could be timed, and a quiz could gauge amount of information gathered after the effect. Maybe I'm getting somewhere now.

To recap, I'll state my newly formed research question:

• Topic: I am studying the difference between the effectiveness six different Emerald Ash Borer websites from Minnesota and Ohio,
• Research Question: because I want to find out how states can communicate better in an online environment when the population's environment is at stake;
• Potential Practical Significance: in order to help other states present the most effective communicate methods online in regard to human intervention of environmental concerns.

Research Topic

Here's a rough idea of what I will be doing this semester: 


I will be studying the communication methods of the joint governmental group responsible for informing the public about the Emerald Ash Borer because I want to find out what the most effective communication method is for environmental concerns to the public in order to help my reader understand the best way for the government to communicate important concerns regarding the environment. (whew! That's a mouthful!)

More Questions to Work Out

There are some questions I have about the fight in Minnesota against the Emerald Ash Borer. I tend to take a lot of pride in the state of MN, and I think the people who live here feel strongly about trees (generally). The progression of this bug has been called "inevitable" and the campaign is not to eradicate them (like some campaigns of the 1960s); instead, it is only to slow the spread.

It seems as though the communication system from the middle of the century is completely converted. At one time, the government was secretive about the way they conducted battles against invasive species. Now, the amount of information sent to the public is vast in scope.

For the Emerald Ash Borer battle, the DNR cannot work alone. A committee is established with members from the Department of Agriculture, the DNR and the federal communications group (I think, I need to check). So this group will be responsible for the communication to the public.

So how effective has their communications campaign been? How does the public respond to the information the DNR has put? What makes Minnesotans listen; what do they tune out and why? If I studied these questions, I could answer this with a study of participants' knowledge of EAB and their willingness to participate in the DNR's campaign by (a) not moving firewood, (b) agreeing to chemical treatments, and (c) educating themselves with more information about the bug. This would take lots of social research, but could involve causal research as well (for instance, how has audience engagement slowed the advance of EAB?).

Beginnings

For my MA English: Technical Communications program, I will be studying the methods of communication used the the joint group of government agencies to slow the spread of an invasive insect, the emerald ash borer. My question is this:

What rhetorical mode of communication will best stop the further spread of the ash borer?

This blog will progress with summaries of journal articles, news articles, video clips, and web site reviews. The majority of posts will produce an annotated bibliography for my final research project. I may also vent here ...