Researcher looking for hunter input for a NorCal hunting study

[HuntResearcher]

Hi everyone,

I'm a researcher at Santa Clara University, working on a couple of projects about hunting access and wildlife management at restoration sites. If you hunted C4, D3, or D4 in 2019 you might have run into me or my survey crew, asking about how far you traveled and how you spent that day's hunt.

Now we're working on a follow-up that is an online survey. It seeks to understand hunter preferences for management at upland sites (for deer and gamebird hunters) and wetland sites (for the waterfowl folks). If you take the survey, you can expect questions about your hunt success, your satisfaction with habitat quality and game management/regulations in Northern California, and your preferences for where you hunt and why.

The survey takes about 15 minutes to do, and we will be sharing the results with wildlife officials (CDFW & USFWS) as well as with hunter/outdoors groups. The purpose of it is to understand what hunters need from restoration sites and what amenties or management approaches make these sites most valuable for hunting. This is part of a larger effort looking at the economic value of hunting in the restoration economy.

We pay $20 to compensate you for your time. To claim it, you would need to give your name and mailling address so I can mail you the payment. If you prefer to keep your info private, but still want to do the survey, there's an identical survey that does not offer the 20 bucks. Same questions, and in both cases, we keep all data strictly confidential.

Eligibility for the survey requires you:

• to be 18 years of age or older
• to have hunted on *public lands* in northern California in the last 2 years

You do not need to be a CA resident. "Northern California" is every zone from the Oregon border down to D7 inclusive.

Links to the survey are below. The links take you first to an explanatory page on my academic website. If you want more info before you click, I'm happy to answer questions about the research on this thread.


bit.ly/HunterResearch20 for those who would like to collect the $20 payment

bit.ly/HunterResearch for those who want to remain completely anonymous


Thanks for considering it; I hope you'll share your opinions and help us bring them to the attention of wildlife management.

 

[Hunter527]

While hunting in Northern California I found dozens of deceased animals that had swallowed copper bullets. If California doesn’t bring back lead ammo, soon our ecosystems will collapse! Please write a paper to Ca fish and game informing them that the return of lead ammo is the only hope for our wildlife!

 

[HuntResearcher]

This is not really my area of expertise, sorry...but I do know you can report unusual wildlife mortality to CDFW with this form:

https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Laboratories/Wildlife-Health/Monitoring/Mortality-Report

And the survey does ask for hunter opinions on the lead ammo ban, though not as a central focus of the research.

 

[IVhunter]

Virginia Matzek studies hunting as an ecosystem service

Matzek and research assistant collected data from hunters last fall and winter

www.scu.edu

 

[HuntResearcher]

Thanks to all who have responded to the survey. I need to close it down and process payments ahead of the end of the fiscal year, so if you want to give input and get your 20 bucks, please do it right away. (The anonymous, no-$20 link will remain active a little while longer.) Here they are again:


bit.ly/HunterResearch20 for those who would like to collect the $20 payment

bit.ly/HunterResearch for those who want to remain completely anonymous