Hunter Questionaire 2011

[GoatGuy]

Dear BCWF members,

As many of you are very much aware, the Fish, Wildlife and Habitat Management Branch has been conducting an annual survey of hunters for more than 35 years. The information you provide is used to estimate resident hunter harvest and effort, which informs every aspect of wildlife management including allocations, LEH authorisations, season lengths, etc. Because of your support we have enjoyed a phenomenal 70% response rate over the years. We’ve been hesitant to change how we do this survey because of its success.

However, hunter sample is an expensive and labour intensive program, and times are changing.

This year, we’ve asked our government partner BC Stats to handle some of the work of hunter sample. Questionnaires are currently on their way to 67,275 randomly selected resident hunters by mail. BC Stats is taking care of printing and mailing questionnaires, and they will handle responses as well. This has a number of benefits both for Fish, Wildlife and Habitat Management and for you.

· There will be 2 options for responding. First, you may fill out the paper form and mail it back as you always have. However, if you choose, you may also tell us about your hunting activity using an online form. Instructions for accessing the web form will accompany your questionnaire.
o If you can, we encourage you to please use the web form. It will look very much like the paper form and allows us to avoid the costs and time of return mail and data entry.
o By responding online, you will also enable us to develop hunter sample estimates much earlier than in recent history. This will aid greatly in improving wildlife management in BC.
· This change is all about cost savings and improved service delivery for hunters in BC. Because BC Stats is involved only in the delivery and handling of the questionnaires, the Fish, Wildlife and Habitat Management Branch is able to maintain all the statistical analysis that goes into hunter sample. This will ensure that we can compare 2010 harvest and effort with previous years.
We’re excited about this change and are asking for your help in making it a success. We thank you for your continued support of this extremely valuable program by providing your information online, and encouraging your friend and hunting partners to do the same, before April 29, 2011. Please contact Chris Addison at (250) 387-9776 or Christopher.Addison@gov.bc.ca if you have any questions about the program or the changes.

[Gateholio]

Hopefully this will kick start everything to be online. LEH forms, HL's etc

[Sitkaspruce]

Great to hear.

So why do they just not put the thing on-line and post this info everywhere. It has already been done here, pretty simple to send an email to all hunting/fishing sites, sport stores and on the MOE web site.

Would it not be cheaper than still mailing out paper?????

Cheers

SS

[GoatGuy]

Great to hear.

So why do they just not put the thing on-line and post this info everywhere. It has already been done here, pretty simple to send an email to all hunting/fishing sites, sport stores and on the MOE web site.

Would it not be cheaper than still mailing out paper?????

Cheers

SS

Unless everyone fills one out, it will skew the results. I already think this will add bias to the survey. The trick is to have a representative sample. :wink:

[RJ]

I'm guessing there are still a few "internet resistant" hunters, so I think things will be mailed for a few more years.

[6616]

Great to hear.

So why do they just not put the thing on-line and post this info everywhere. It has already been done here, pretty simple to send an email to all hunting/fishing sites, sport stores and on the MOE web site.

Would it not be cheaper than still mailing out paper?????

Cheers

SS

My thoughts on this are when Region 4 posted the regulation proposals for on-line comment it generated less than 100 responses, and the results came in with nearly 60 to 70 % of the respondents against all proposals, when in actual fact we all are pretty much aware that's not the feeling of the general hunting public. Seems on-line surveys are generally responded to heavily by those with an axe to grind and ignored by the average Joe Hunter on the street thus the results might not be reliable...?

[6616]

Also, with a 70% response rate for 67,000 mailings equals a return of 47,000 questionnaires and represents a sample size of about half the hunters in BC, that should generate a pretty significant and reliable confidence interval and a a very valuable data set.

[bridger]

a positve move imo

[BCrams]

Chris Addison has his work cut out for him.

He should probably have a good look at this paper regarding the fallacy of on line surveys if he already hasn't.

Short version for folks:

In short, most online surveys produce erroneous data that can lead to erroneous conclusions and subsequently to bad decision-making by agencies, organizations, and businesses. It's better to have no data than inaccurate data.

http://www.responsivemanagement.com/news_from/2010-05-04.htm

http://warnercnr.colostate.edu/nrrt/hdfw/documents/Mark_D_Duda_Fallacy_Online_Surveys.pdf

[hunter1947]

I like the telling of the activity part about your hunt on the questionaire you could not do this before..

[barry1974w]

I think decent internet access should be available to everybody before everything goes online. A lot of people don't live in the city and don't have access to decent internet of cell service.