The Public’s Perceived Importance and View of State Fish and Wildlife Agencies
Strategic Priority
Recruitment, Retention, Reactivation (R3) - Enhancing Conservation Through Broader Engagement
Project Documents
No project documents available.
Project Description
| Effective fish and wildlife management requires meaningful interaction with all segments of society, not just the people who buy hunting and fishing licenses. States’ mission statements often reflect their broad responsibilities for all residents; however, significant segments of the public may not be aware of their state fish and wildlife agency, much less its responsibilities, services, and benefits. Considering most people believe fish and wildlife agency funding is shared equally between license sales and general tax dollars (Manfredo et al., 2018), there is considerable room to improve state agencies’ interactions with the broader public. Similarly, state agencies have a limited understanding of how they are perceived by the public, especially non-traditional stakeholders. Together, these issues hinder states’ ability to effectively communicate and engage with the public and make it difficult to deliver programs relevant to the diverse communities served. This project will help state fish and wildlife agencies understand the public’s awareness of their core functions and perceived effectiveness, the importance of public places on states’ missions, responsibilities, funding structures, legal limits, and more. The results will enable states to engage better with their diverse publics. Eleven of the MAFWA states will be engaged to identify their public programs, responsibilities, and current management challenges. For each state, two online surveys will be developed to capture the opinions and perceptions of: 1) residents not engaged in traditional state-managed activities (fishing, hunting, boating and similar), and 2) residents who identify as traditional stakeholders, for comparative purposes. We will target up to 1,000 responses from non-traditional stakeholders to gather insights for unique geographic, demographic, and socio/cultural audiences and another 1,000 responses from traditional audiences. The methods will replicate and build upon the currently funded MSCG project, “The Public’s Perceived Importance and View of State Fish and Wildlife Agencies,” currently underway in the SEAFWA states. Project methodology, results, and insights gained will be shared with NEAFWA and WAFWA for replication. |
Project Facts
- Organization Name: Midwest Association of Fish And Wildlife Agencies
- Organization Status: NGO classified as 501(c)(6)
- State: Kansas
- Obligation: $280,515
- Start Date: 01-01-2024
- End Date: 12-31-2024
