“…Understanding stakeholder perceptions is key to building trust, to determining the best possible land use, and to designing a long-term stewardship program that the public supports. Managing ecosystems, and remediation on them, is a social process (Meffe & Viederman, 1995;Norgaard, 1992), and understanding the perceptions of elected officials and the public is a critical component (Lowrie & Greenberg, 1997).Over the past ten years, the Consortium for Risk Evaluation and Stakeholder Participation (CRESP) has been involved in assessing the views of a number of different stakeholders about various aspects of DOE operations and land use (Burger, 2000b(Burger, , 2001(Burger, , 2003a(Burger, , 2004(Burger, , 2005Burger et al, 1997bBurger et al, , 1998Burger et al, , 1999aBurger et al, , 1999bBurger et al, , 1999cGoldstein et al, 2000;Greenberg & Lowrie, 2001, 2002Williams et al, 1999). In addition to examining the perceptions and views of public officials, planners, and the general public, methods have been developed to assess the views of the public about ecological services, ecological resources, resource use (i.e., hunting and fishing rates), and future land use.…”