Smoke from forest fires can limit forest management actions because of down-wind impacts. Public controversy can result from the vast distances smoke disperses over residential, work, recreation, and transportation areas. Pyne, Andrews, and Laven (1996) aptly describe why fires burning in one region can result in smoke becoming an issue across county, state, and national lines: 'no other aspect of fire carries its effects so far from the site, no other is so visible to the public or threatens public health, no other is subject to such regulation by outside agencies, and no other so threatens to compromise programs of routine prescribed fire' (p. 554). Forest managers and officials need to understand the diverse public opinions toward smoke from forest fires; however, very limited research has been conducted specifically on this topic. Hence, forest and fire managers are largely uncertain about society's willingness to tolerate smoke in the short-term from prescribed fires in order to obtain long-term benefits, such as future community protection from large fires (Potter, Rorig, Strand, Goodrick, & Olson, 2007). Our study, funded by the Joint Fire Science Program in the United States, integrated components from the value-belief-norm theory (Stern, 2000) and protection motivation theory (Rogers & Prentice-Dunn, 1997) to answer the research question: How do cognitive factors and personal characteristics influence public tolerance of smoke and support for prescribed (Rx) fire management activities? Results may provide land managers, fire professionals, community leaders, and policy makers who set air quality standards for prescribed burning with a clearer framework to develop more effective public communication strategies that align with local and regional perspectives. This part was written as a framework in two sections, one that describes and compares the two study regions and communities with regards to their level of preparedness for fire, type (urban or rural), smoke experience, perceptions of fire and smoke consequences, perceived vulnerability to impacts, trust in fire managers, individual characteristics, and overall tolerance of smoke. The second section will describe how path analytic models were used to explore tolerance of smoke and management support as a direct function of beliefs and individual characteristics, and indirectly as a function of personal value orientations and agency trust. The justification and findings of both sections are integrated in the single chapter, which serves as the final report on this project.