Strengthening syntheses on fire: increasing their usefulness for managers

A synthesis for fire managers summarizes and interprets a body of information, presents its meaning in an objective, unbiased way, and describes its implications for decisionmakers. Following are suggestions for ways to strengthen syntheses on fire and on other natural resource issues: Include managers, scientists, and science delivery specialists in planning, developing, and delivering syntheses; If a synthesis has unique regional components, include someone from each region in the planning team and consider these needs in writing and packaging; Use managers as authors, co-authors, or reviewers to ensure management implications are fully developed and clearly explained; Use existing communication networks within the management community for marketing and delivery.Include syntheses in education and professional development.Improve use of technology to provide syntheses, research and monitoring results, and other information so managers can easily find the information and apply it to resource management decisions.