Wildlife Managers and Public Involvement: Letting the Crazy Aunt Out

Abstract

Addressing the demands of diverse publics requires wildlife management agencies to seek opportunities for public input. Essential to the search for such opportunities is recognizing barriers. To evaluate internal barriers to public involvement in Utah, this study analyzed Utah Division of Wildlife Resource (UDWR) managers' attitudes regarding public involvement in management decisions. Mail survey results indicate that managers believe most decisions should involve the public, but that authority should be primarily relegated to the wildlife professional. Managers showed the highest support for public involvement, emphasizing gathering information about the public through systematic surveys. These results are important to the UDWR because they identify the presence of internal barriers to more collaborative public involvement processes and internal support for gathering more information about the general public. For the greater field of wildlife management, the results and methods provide a blueprint and justification for other agencies to conduct similar introspection and undertake remedial steps to reduce the barriers.