425nonmonetary rewards and to fi nd employees who enjoy working with citizens to
achieve mutual goals.
One benefi t of working within collaborative groups is that they provide the sort
of participatory engagement that is said to be most effective for educatio n. While we
have noted that active education is more time-consuming and possibly more costly
than unidirectional approaches, those costs can be offset to some extent by engage-
ment of volunteers as educators as well as targets of educational efforts. Compared
to individuals who receive information through casual encounters, as at a museum,
those who are willing to allocate time to participatory engagement are more likely
also to be attuned to the educational messages, increasing the likelihood that those
messages will lead to changes in behavior.
A particularly valuable aspect of collaborative group processes is that they build
trust. There is growing evidence that trust in people and in institutions depends
more on how citizens feel about process issues (fairness, equity, or ability to partici-
pate) rather than a bout outcomes (Shindler et al. 2002 ; Van Ryzin 2011 ). Negative
judgments about a decision—for example, to use herbicides or remove existing veg-
etation as part of a restoration project—are most likely to change when the decision
process is transparent and the affected parties understand the trade-offs considered
by the managers. Lack of trust in agencies often results from poor communication
between agencies and the local community (McCaffrey 2004 ). Forming and main-
taining collaborative management groups can address these issues by engaging
interested and affected parties in decisions at all stages of the weed management
process and by educating stakeholders through active engagement both prior to and
duri ng management activities.
14.6 Research Needs
Relatively little research has been conducted on the human dimensions of exotic
invasive plants in North America. Only a small proportion of that work addressed
the specifi c issue of exotic annual grasses such as Bromus species. In fact, only the
recently published study by Kelley et al. ( 2013 ) focused specifi cally on attitudes
toward management of an invasive annual grass ( B. tectorum ), and that work took
place in a region where concern is increasing along with the spread of exotic spe-
cies. Research in the Great Basin, where the problem is more widespread, addressed
invasion more generally, although we can anticipate that most survey respondents
answered with B. tectorum in mind because that species poses the greatest threat.
The most obvious human dime nsions research need, therefore, is for studies that
focus on public knowledge and attitudes regarding exotic annual grasses. We know
less than we should about how stakeholders perceive options for restoration of exotic
grass-invaded areas and virtually nothing about public awareness of other problem-
atic species such as B. rubens , B. hordeaceus , B. diandrus , and P. ciliare , each of
which poses as grave a threat as B. tectorum over their more restricted invasion
ranges, nor do we know how stakeholders perceive B. inermis , which is considered
14 Human Dimensions of Invasive Grasses