Sep 19, 2024 Local News
Jefferson City, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation's (MDC) annual efforts of sending surveys to various hunting and trapping permit holders is underway. Over the coming months, MDC will send surveys through emails and U.S. mail to more than 200,000 hunters and trappers. The surveys ask for feedback on many topics that relate to hunter and trapper opinions and levels of satisfaction with current regulations, days spent hunting or trapping, harvest data, and more. Permit holders are selected at random to receive these surveys to ensure that responses are as representative as possible.
"Public feedback is an essential part of our decision making about hunting and trapping regulations and seasons," said MDC Director Jason Sumners. "Surveys are one of the tools we use and are vital in getting that feedback. The better participation by the public in responding to our surveys, the better we can understand what Missourians want from us."
MDC Resource Analyst Suzanne Roudebush added that MDC sends surveys in several ways, such as through mailed surveys or electronic surveys through emails.
"We send surveys to trappers and hunters for various species or groups of species such as waterfowl, small game, black bear, turkey, and deer," Roudebush said. "We then work with our MDC biologists to compile and analyze the data from survey responses. We use the information to help make decisions on things such as regulations changes, assessing hunter satisfaction with regulations, and to assess the status and trends of wildlife populations."
Survey Responses Matter
"Responses from deer-hunter surveys are one of the most important pieces of information we have for assessing the status of the deer population and for understanding hunter satisfaction with deer numbers and deer-hunting regulations," said MDC Cervid Program Supervisor Jason Isabelle.
MDC sent surveys to nearly 10,000 trappers in August and will send Waterfowl Zone Structure Review Surveys to about 80,000 migratory-bird permit holders in late September. MDC will send a black-bear survey to all 400 current permit holders in late October.
"Receiving survey responses from black-bear hunters is important information we review and take into consideration when setting annual black bear hunting regulations," said MDC Black Bear/Furbearer Biologist Nate Bowersock. "In addition, results from annual trapper surveys help us track trends in our furbearer populations that would otherwise be difficult to do."
About 10,000 fall turkey hunters will get a survey in early November followed by surveys in January to about 85,000 deer hunters. Efforts continue in February with a waterfowl-harvest survey to about 10,000 hunters and a survey to about 16,000 small-game hunters. The annual effort concludes with a survey to about 5,500 snow-goose hunters and about 25,000 spring turkey hunters.
"We really want to emphasize that MDC email surveys are not spam and our mailed surveys are not junk mail," Roudebush said. "Survey responses provide essential feedback to us when making decisions that impact hunters and trappers. We realize people are busier than ever, but we need to hear back from them to best serve them."
Survey Response Rates Have Fallen
"It was common to have 50-60% of hunters and trappers respond to our surveys 20 years ago," she explained. "Five years ago, the response rates had fallen to 30-35%. Today, response rates are often under 20% and even 10%."
Roudebush added that staff are exploring ways to increase response rates and making a concerted effort to stress the importance of survey responses in helping to shape hunting and trapping seasons and regulations.
"Higher response rates are critical both for having reliable data to inform management decisions and for allowing more individuals to engage in the process by sharing their input," she said. "As a hunter or trapper, receiving a survey from MDC provides you with an opportunity to become an active participant in the management of Missouri's wildlife populations."
In addition to these surveys, MDC also surveys MDC program attendees, forest nursery seedling buyers, hunter education attendees, shooting range visitors, volunteers, Conservationist readers, Missouri Recreational Access Program (MRAP) users, anglers, private landowners, and others. To learn more about MDC survey efforts, email RSD.Survey@mdc.mo.gov.
