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FACTORS AFFECTING HUNTER
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LINKS |
Department of Fisheries Wildlife |
Professor Shawn Riley's Lab |
Jordan Burroughs Web Site |
Michigan State University |
Welcome!
In the form of a bibliography, this Web site depicts the state of knowledge regarding hunter access, recruitment, and retention as of June 2008.
Wildlife managers in Michigan, and throughout the range of white-tailed deer and turkey, rely heavily on harvest through public hunting to attain objectives for game populations and the ecosystems in which they live. Yet, declining capacity of current hunters to kill enough animals is a suspected impediment to achieving desired harvests. Recruitment and retention of additional hunters is a key challenge to sustaining hunter participation and harvests over time. Access likely plays a crucial role in hunter capacity for harvest, as well as recruitment and retention of hunters. Hunters make a substantial financial contribution (e.g., $1,896 per hunter per year; IAFWA 2002) to states' economies through the purchase of hunting licenses and expenses related to hunting.
Changing land use patterns and increasing human populations in southern Michigan are resulting in parcelization of the landscape into smaller ownership units. This trend is expected to continue throughout southern Michigan for the next 20 years. Populations of white-tailed deer and wild turkey are thriving in this landscape, yet management's ability to control populations with public hunting is diminishing. There is a need to better understand factors affecting hunter access, recruitment and retention of hunters to reduce uncertainty associated with objectives for a harvest and actual realized harvests. A current, comprehensive literature review on this topic is lacking.
This project reviewed literature to communicate the state of knowledge regarding factors affecting hunter access, retention, and recruitment with specific application to southern Michigan. Project objectives were to: (1) review the scientific literature (e.g., agency reports, peer-reviewed papers) related to factors affecting hunter access and its role in hunter recruitment and retention, and (2) develop a bibliography of this literature. The literature review is used to document existing knowledge and identify significant knowledge gaps and research needs.
Insights gained may lead to ways that increase hunter capacity and management's ability to achieve societal goals for wildlife, as well as contribute to the state's economy.
