A youth group on toui 

 shocking fish and tokii 



sees fisheries 

 3 data. 



ly every phase of business, be it government 

 or private. In the private business v/orld, about 

 75% of the employees are engaged in man- 

 agement and about 25% in selling and public 

 relations. Figures from a 1964 publication indi- 

 cate that about 1 % of natural resource agencies 

 personnel are employed full time in the field 

 of public relations and selling. The same pub- 

 lication states also that at that time there were 

 an average of 11 I & E personnel in each state 

 conservation agency. 



Whereas business is mostly concerned in 

 selling goods and services, a conservation 

 agency's biggest selling job lies in the field of 

 ideas and services. This is a basic difference. 

 Without the sale of new ideas to the public in 

 on understandable and palatable manner, re- 

 search soon pulls far ahead of management — 

 stagnation is bred. Management cannot con- 

 ceivably catch up with public acceptance and 

 continued support. Ideas are elusive though - 

 far more difficult to comprehend and sell than 

 are tangible products. It is often difficult to 

 determine whether ideas have been sold or not. 



In the field of resource management, wildlife 

 agencies are faced with more difficult selling 

 jobs than are other agencies. The interest in 

 wildlife is inherently greater, but sentiment is 

 more apt to run high and override logic. The 

 product (wildlife) is a common user of private 

 OS well as public land. This relationship cannot 

 help but result in conflict among private land- 

 owners, recreationists, state agencies, and gov- 

 ernment agencies. 



This leads to the question of what can an 

 I and E Division do to bring understanding to 

 these various interests? lust how much con an 

 I and E Division accomplish in selling the va- 

 ried and complex ideas that go into manage- 

 ment programs? To many persons I and E, or 

 public relations, implies a Pandora's box — a 

 magic wand which when waved properly will 

 transform the most adamant critic into a loyal 

 supporter. If this were true, it would certainly 

 be a different world in which we now live. An 

 I and E Division can do a great deal toward 

 fostering public understanding and acceptance 

 of its parent agency. This acceptance is gen- 

 erally termed as "image" — the attitudes of the 

 public toward the agency. An I and E Division 

 helps form the image by making information 

 available to the public. News services including 

 radio and television presentations as well as 

 written news releases are important informa- 

 tion outlets. Information is also made available 

 through feature articles, pamphlets, brochures, 

 and various other written media. Some of these 

 publications are aimed strictly at answering 

 commonly asked questions, while others cover 

 highlights of the department's programs. Tech- 

 nical information gathered at great expense 

 can be presented in a fashion that is under- 

 standable to the layman, thereby acquainting 

 the public with some of the more technical 

 aspects of resource management. 



I and E Divisions also handle a great deal 

 of the agency's correspondence. This includes 

 not only the filling of routine information re- 

 quests, but also letters of more intimate nature, 

 such as answers to complaints and special in- 

 quiries. Such correspondence is probably sec- 

 ond only to personal contact in effective public 

 relations, but on a comparatively small scale. 

 Other methods of effective public contact are 

 through movies, school programs, teacher work- 

 shops, field trips, and youth camps. An I and E 

 Division is, then, basically an instrument of 

 mass media, though personal contact is mode 

 wherever possible. 



Information presented through mass medio 

 in an honest, straightforward manner without 

 gimmicks is lifeblood of a public agency. This 

 is the only means of contact with a large por- 

 tion of the public, but it cannot be depended 

 upon entirely to do the public relations job. 

 The image of an agency is the sum total of 

 each and every individual agency contact 

 plus the abilities, knowledge and prejudices 

 of the public. Before the ideas or programs of 

 an agency are publicly accepted, the agency 

 must first be considered creditable, progressive, 

 dedicated, and enlightened. One wrong act, 

 one misinterpretation, one misunderstanding by 

 a single individual will be considered by the 

 public as an act or deed of the entire agency. 

 It is axiomatic that a program which pleases 



