Wicked problems are multifactorial in nature and possess no clear resolution due to numerous community stakeholder involvement. We demonstrate childhood lead poisoning as a wicked problem and illustrate how understanding a community's ecology can build community capacity to affect local environmental management by (1) forming an academic-community partnership and (2) developing a place-specific strategy grounded in the cultural-experiential model of risk. We propose that practitioners need to consider a community's ecology and social context of risk as it pertains to wicked problems. These factors will determine how a diverse community interprets and responds to environmental communication and capacity-building efforts. (Contains 1 figure.)