Waterfowl Hunter Survey Closes tonight

[Lreynolds]

We will be closing the survey tonight at midnight. Thanks to everyone that participated! As of yesterday we have received:

463 from the mail-out surveys (18.5% response rate with some still coming in)
202 from the postcard mail-outs (8.1% response rate)
5,431 from the e-mail contacts (21.7% response rate)
1,720 from the open web survey

So like I indicated earlier, we have more data from more individual hunters than ever before thanks to the e-mail contacts, but the response rates are disappointing.

[MarshRat89]

Thanks for the reminder I forgot to send mine in.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[biggun]

I never could find it on the WLF site..

[Nickt87]

I'm an avid waterfowler who has had the same email address for nearly 10years, had a Lifetime License my entire adult life, participate in the HIP Permit every year, and purchase a Fed Duck Stamp every year. I did not receive the first hint of the survey from LDWF or any other official organization and wouldn't have known to participate if it weren't for a forwarded text message from a friend. Maybe the poor response was an indicator that you're reaching the wrong folk.

[Duck Butter]

Originally Posted by Nickt87

I'm an avid waterfowler who has had the same email address for nearly 10years, had a Lifetime License my entire adult life, participate in the HIP Permit every year, and purchase a Fed Duck Stamp every year. I did not receive the first hint of the survey from LDWF or any other official organization and wouldn't have known to participate if it weren't for a forwarded text message from a friend. Maybe the poor response was an indicator that you're reaching the wrong folk.

It was posted on every outdoor website multiple times

[Lreynolds]

First: There has been a color banner on the front page of the LDWF website for almost 2 months with blue-winged teal and the words "2015 Waterfowl Hunter Survey". It was in the same place you will find colorful banners for the black bear and wildlife action plan today. I don't know how any duckhunter could have missed it.

Second: Of the 95,000 known duck hunters we identified (and I know we missed some), only 25,000 had e-mail addresses. I've bought licenses here for 29 years, but never did it on-line, and my e-mail address is not in the LDWF database.

The vast majority of duck hunters were NOT contacted. That would be a HUGE waste of resources! We selected 2,500 for the random mail-out survey, another 2,500 for the mixed-mode post-card survey, and sent e-mails to about 25,000. The other 65,000 were not contacted. We provided the open web survey on the LDWF website so every interested duck hunter could participate at a fairly low cost to us.

We've got to explore alternative ways of collecting this information that balance the high cost of a mail-out survey where over 80% of your effort is thrown in the trash, and an open web survey that generates biased estimates because the sample is so skewed toward the most dedicated hunters.

[Nickt87]

Originally Posted by Lreynolds

First: There has been a color banner on the front page of the LDWF website for almost 2 months with blue-winged teal and the words "2015 Waterfowl Hunter Survey". It was in the same place you will find colorful banners for the black bear and wildlife action plan today. I don't know how any duckhunter could have missed it.

Second: Of the 95,000 known duck hunters we identified (and I know we missed some), only 25,000 had e-mail addresses. I've bought licenses here for 29 years, but never did it on-line, and my e-mail address is not in the LDWF database.

The vast majority of duck hunters were NOT contacted. That would be a HUGE waste of resources! We selected 2,500 for the random mail-out survey, another 2,500 for the mixed-mode post-card survey, and sent e-mails to about 25,000. The other 65,000 were not contacted. We provided the open web survey on the LDWF website so every interested duck hunter could participate at a fairly low cost to us.

We've got to explore alternative ways of collecting this information that balance the high cost of a mail-out survey where over 80% of your effort is thrown in the trash, and an open web survey that generates biased estimates because the sample is so skewed toward the most dedicated hunters.

You proved my point perfectly. 95k Duck hunters. 30k contacted for the survey? Where did you see the highest percentage of response? EMAIL. Find a way to access the 95k duck hunter's email(maybe request their email when doing the HIP survey annually) and get the results you're looking for. Email directly contacts the user, their wife cant toss it in the mail while they're at work. Email is much cheaper than snail mail and has an obviously better(not much) response. Focus your resources where they count, this is 2015, even email is almost out of date by the time you click send. Facebook announcement maybe? Just did some scrolling on the LDWF page and I don't recall seeing an announcement/alert on there, 50k followers on there. And sorry about the 21.7% response rate, but this is America, people are just about too lazy to vote for the man that runs the country, it'll be very hard to get them to vote for a law related to a bird that they just started hunting in the last 3 years after they watched A&E.


Keep up the good work and reports, there are a few of us out here that still try to stay in tuned and appreciate all your hard work.

[Lreynolds]

Originally Posted by Nickt87

Find a way to access the 95k duck hunter's email(maybe request their email when doing the HIP survey annually)

A possible outcome of this phase of our research may well be a recommendation requiring e-mail addresses with license purchases. How well that flies with the agency/license-buyers is anybody's guess. For right now, we need to assess the differences in demographics, avidity, and attitudes of e-mail respondents vs random mail-out vs open web.

Originally Posted by Nick87

Just did some scrolling on the LDWF page and I don't recall seeing an announcement/alert on there

It was removed yesterday when the survey closed. It had been up for nearly 2 months right where you saw the banners for Recreational Offshore Landings Permit and Louisiana Black Bear Delisting.

[DaPointIsDaBomb]

Originally Posted by Nickt87

You proved my point perfectly. 95k Duck hunters. 30k contacted for the survey? Where did you see the highest percentage of response? EMAIL. Find a way to access the 95k duck hunter's email(maybe request their email when doing the HIP survey annually) and get the results you're looking for. Email directly contacts the user, their wife cant toss it in the mail while they're at work. Email is much cheaper than snail mail and has an obviously better(not much) response. Focus your resources where they count, this is 2015, even email is almost out of date by the time you click send. Facebook announcement maybe? Just did some scrolling on the LDWF page and I don't recall seeing an announcement/alert on there, 50k followers on there. And sorry about the 21.7% response rate, but this is America, people are just about too lazy to vote for the man that runs the country, it'll be very hard to get them to vote for a law related to a bird that they just started hunting in the last 3 years after they watched A&E.


Keep up the good work and reports, there are a few of us out here that still try to stay in tuned and appreciate all your hard work.

They need to just scrap all this electronics crap and go knock on everyone's door.

I do want to remind you that next year there are a couple big elections coming up you may want to vote in. And you need to renew your fishing license if you haven't already. Just looking out for you because they don't send emails about that stuff

[Nickt87]

Originally Posted by Lreynolds

We've got to explore alternative ways of collecting this information that balance the high cost of a mail-out survey where over 80% of your effort is thrown in the trash, and an open web survey that generates biased estimates because the sample is so skewed toward the most dedicated hunters.

What about surveying them right there the instant they do the HIP. EVERY waterfowler has to have the HIP EVERY year. I don't think it'll put the little cashier at Academy in too big of a bind, its only another 5 questions. Besides, she doesn't take anytime on the HIP anyway, she just hits all zeros, maybe she can take that time to actually do the survey!

The most dedicated hunter's that dug out the survey online deserve to have their voice heard. Not disregarded.

[noodle creek]

Originally Posted by Nickt87

What about surveying them right there the instant they do the HIP. EVERY waterfowler has to have the HIP EVERY year. I don't think it'll put the little cashier at Academy in too big of a bind, its only another 5 questions. Besides, she doesn't take anytime on the HIP anyway, she just hits all zeros, maybe she can take that time to actually do the survey!

The most dedicated hunter's that dug out the survey online deserve to have their voice heard. Not disregarded.

I agree. I would say that the dedicated hunter's surveys aren't biased, they are simply the ones who care most, the ones with the most experience, and the ones with the most knowlege on what actually goes on with the waterfowl in their particular area.

To me, that is more valueable than Joe Blow who hunts 4 times a year and still has an opinion.

[Lreynolds]

Originally Posted by Nickt87

What about surveying them right there the instant they do the HIP. EVERY waterfowler has to have the HIP EVERY year. I don't think it'll put the little cashier at Academy in too big of a bind, its only another 5 questions. Besides, she doesn't take anytime on the HIP anyway, she just hits all zeros, maybe she can take that time to actually do the survey!

Actually, the survey was 30 questions, some with multiple parts. Furthermore, we have constant trouble with retail outlets like Academy and Wal-Mart doing the HIP registration correctly because "it slows down the line" to collect the information. Given that, I don't believe asking them to conduct a survey is even feasible. Getting e-mail addresses, maybe, but no way will they be tasked with conducting a survey.

Originally Posted by Nick87

The most dedicated hunter's that dug out the survey online deserve to have their voice heard. Not disregarded.

Hahahah! Dug out? Just own the fact that you were oblivious.

No segment of hunters is being disregarded. The most dedicated hunters are also a part of the random-selection samples in the proportion that they exist in the population of all hunters. Because they are more likely to respond to any survey, even the random mail-out surveys are somewhat biased toward more dedicated hunters.

The problem with online surveys is that respondents are strongly biased toward the more dedicated hunters. In 2010, 2012, and 2013 surveys, respondents to the open-web survey hunted nearly twice the number of days, killed twice the number of ducks, were 3 times more likely to have lifetime licenses, and were 6 times more likely to be members of a conservation organization on average, than respondents to the mail-out survey. Consequently, if we tried to estimate hunter activity and harvest from the open-web survey, we would badly over-estimate because of a non-randomness and lack of representativeness in the sample. One of our primary scientific contributions to date is showing that despite the respondents being very different, the open-web and random mail-out surveys gave almost identical results for questions on satisfaction, preference for regulatory actions, and attitudes toward management activities.

Consequently, we have used the open-web results extensively for those kinds of questions.

[Lreynolds]

Originally Posted by Nickt87

Maybe the poor response was an indicator that you're reaching the wrong folk.

I don't know how that is possible. We took a random sample of hunters who registered with HIP that either 1) bought a "duck" license or 2) reported hunting ducks the previous year on the HIP registration questions. That added up to just over 95,000 individuals who were almost certainly duck hunters. We probably missed some lifetime or senior license holders that may not have been asked the HIP registration questions, but all people in our sample database showed solid evidence of being a waterfowl hunter.

Those are the right folks, and you've seen the response rates.

[Spunt Drag]

30/3 or bust

[meaux fishing]

Originally Posted by Spunt Drag

30/3 or bust

I vote 10/1

[Spunt Drag]

Originally Posted by meaux fishing

I vote 10/1

You got my vote.

[Lreynolds]

Originally Posted by Spunt Drag

30/3 or bust

I keep warning that it's coming with all the habitat loss in the prairie-pothole region, but with all the water from the past few years, it just keeps on keeping on.

I'm working my way through this thread, so I apologize if someone already posted this, but the population remains in good shape.

http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/pd...opulations.pdf

[Spunt Drag]

Originally Posted by Lreynolds

I keep warning that it's coming with all the habitat loss in the prairie-pothole region, but with all the water from the past few years, it just keeps on keeping on.

I'm working my way through this thread, so I apologize if someone already posted this, but the population remains in good shape.

http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/pd...opulations.pdf

And I'll be thrilled. It will bring the overcrowded refuges back to bearable and drive these ridiculous lease prices down.

When a garhole $hit blind is going for $6k, it's gotten outta hand. I saw a blind advertised the other day for $2,500 FOR TEAL SEASON!!! Duck hunting is a REALLY big fad right now. It's time to separate the wheat from the chaff.

[Lreynolds]

I've appreciated the discussion, guys! It has provided the opportunity to expose what we are seeing and learning as well as the adjustments we are making to gather the most representative data in the most cost-effective way. It will certainly evolve in the future.

I got my first look at the e-mail and open-web survey data this afternoon, and at first glance, I'm really excited about the e-mail survey. The open-web respondents averaged about 60% more hunt days and nearly twice the duck kill as the e-mail respondents. So, it looks like the e-mail survey might provide results more similar to the random mail-out survey, which would be great!

We will provide a preliminary summary presentation of the survey results at the August 6th Commission meeting.

[Spunt Drag]

Actually, shut the season down completely for a couple years.