2025 Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference

AUTHORS:  Lou Cornicelli, PhD, Southwick Associates

ABSTRACT:  Effective fish and wildlife management requires meaningful interaction with all segments of society, not just the people who buy hunting and fishing licenses. States’ mission statements often reflect their broad responsibilities on behalf of all residents; however, significant segments of the public who do not hunt, fish, or enjoy wildlife may not be aware of their state fish and wildlife agency at all, much less its responsibilities, services, and benefits provided. This hinders states’ abilities to effectively communicate and engage with the public and deliver programs relevant to each state’s diverse range of communities. Through a grant awarded to MAFWA through the R3 committees and funded by a multi-state conservation grant program, midwestern states were surveyed to capture the opinions and perceptions of: 1) residents not engaged in traditional state-managed activities (fishing, hunting, boating and similar), 2) residents who do not engage in any outdoor activity, 3) residents who identify as traditional stakeholders. The results will help states better understand how the broader public perceives their conservation agency and how to implement efforts to increase public awareness, engagement, and support for conservation.

AUTHORS:  Cynthia Longmire, DJ Case & Associates
Hiro Hayashi, DJ Case & Associates
Eric Edwards, Missouri Department of Conservation

ABSTRACT:  Across the country, agencies and their partners have implemented countless R3 programs, workshops, trainings, and other efforts. At the core, these efforts are concerned with motivating program participants to start or increase participation in outdoor activities. People are often motivated by external factors, yet just as often, they are motivated from within. This interaction between external forces and intrinsic motives drives behavior. Self-Determination Theory is a well-known theory of human motivation based on the idea that people have three basic psychological needs that drive their behavior. 1) The need to feel they have a choice in the decision to do an activity (autonomy); 2) the need to feel they have the skills to do the activity and be effective at it (competence); and 3) the need to feel a sense of belonging (relatedness). The better these needs are met, the more likely an individual will participate in the activity.

In 2022, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) fielded nearly 300 R3 programs. With this project, MDC, working with DJ Case & Associates, evaluated these programs to understand better how well they recruit, retain, or reactive hunters, anglers, and shooting sports participants. R3 program participants were cross-referenced with permit sales data to determine how these programs helped achieve the Department’s R3 goals. Permit sales are a critical metric but fail to account for the important role that programs can play in helping individuals along their journey to becoming hunters, anglers, or sport shooters. In addition to evaluating traditional R3 outcomes, the project uses R3 program participant interviews to explore the programs’ impact on participants' perceived competence, relatedness, and autonomy.

AUTHORS:  Matt Harlow, DJ Case & Associates; Holly Mauslein, DJ Case & Associates; Megan Wisecup, Iowa Department of Natural Resources; Keith Warnke, Midwest Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies

ABSTRACT:  Youth shooting sports programs are among the fastest growing youth sports programs in the country, but little is known about participation of underrepresented groups. By understanding the barriers these populations face, coaches and other practitioners can develop strategies to increase their participation and representation in the shooting sports. The goal of this project was to understand how to increase and improve efforts to recruit more diverse participants into youth shooting sports such as archery and trap shooting.
The DJ Case team conducted 19 focus groups with shooting sports coaches and participants as well as with students who do not participate in shooting sports. Findings include insights into:
•Why students do/don’t participate in high school sports, in general
•Why students do/don’t participate in high school archery teams
•Why students do/don’t participate in high school shooting sports teams
These findings, combined with the findings of past studies, were used to develop recommendations for how high school shooting sports teams could best attract more diverse participants. These recommendations include the use of:
•Diversified imagery and representation to showcase different genders, ethnicities, and physical abilities
•Strategic messaging and imagery to address perceived barriers
•Specialized new shooter events to bridge first-time to competition-style learning
This project was the first phase of a two-phase project, with Phase One (2023) focusing on data collection, research, and analysis. Phase Two (2024) will use the results from Phase One to develop specific marketing and communication tools and strategies and make them available to shooting sports team coaches.
This presentation summarizes the findings of the Phase One focus groups conducted by DJ Case & Associates to help inform the development of recruitment tools and efforts. We will also present an initial sample of the communications and marketing tools currently being developed in Phase Two of this ongoing project.

AUTHORS:  Matt Harlow, DJ Case & Associates; Holly Mauslein, DJ Case & Associates; Hiro Hayashi, DJ Case & Associates; Matt Dunfee, Wildlife Management Institute; Rob Southwick, Southwick Associates

ABSTRACT:  The R3 community has invested heavily in reversing the downward trend in hunting participation by expanding its understanding of prospective hunters. A critical part of this expansion has been understanding and engaging so-called “adult-onset hunters”—people who did not grow up in hunting families but whose interest in the activity is rooted in complex values.
This presentation is an amalgam of three Multi State Conservation Grant projects that used qualitative & quantitative research and monitored media placement to build an understanding of the messages that motivate potential new hunters to consider the activity and the media channels that successfully reach them.
The MSCG’s include:
•YouTube to Attract Hunters
•LearnHunting.org Pilot Marketing
•New Hunter Ads for Target Audience
The research team on these projects included the Wildlife Management Institute, International Hunter Education Association, DJ Case & Associates, and Southwick Associates.
These projects resulted in a large collection of high-performing, publicly available ads and media strategies that are being shared with the R3 Community in the New Hunter Ad Toolkit. This toolkit is in development and will be available to access from the R3 Clearinghouse.
This presentation provides attendees with information about the New Hunter Ad Toolkit, the ideal media mix, and the recommended combinations of the ads featured in this project.

AUTHORS:  Lou Cornicelli, Ph.D., Southwick Associates

ABSTRACT:  According to the Multistate Grant-funded license sales dashboard, license sales only achieved a net 1% increase from 2016 through 2021. For nearly all age groups, license sales fell. Sales to 18-24- and 25–34-year-olds fell 4% and 3% respectively, while 45-54-year-olds purchased 5% fewer licenses. The real surprise is 35-44-year-olds, whose license purchases grew 9%. This growth is organic as very few R3 efforts are systematically targeting the 35-44-year-old age group. Why are sales growing among this Gen Y/Millennial age group? Is this growth related to factors faced by 35-44-year-olds today or were they exposed to the outdoors in their youth and now finally have the opportunity to go on their own? Can any reasons driving this growth be harnessed by R3 professionals to further expand participation? This project connected with license buyers using qualitative and quantitative methods to identify reasons for this spike. Investigators developed recommendations for actions and strategies R3 professionals can implement to fuel further growth within this demographic.

AUTHORS:  Southwick Associates

ABSTRACT:  Many current R3 and hunter education efforts incorporate the five “stages” or “phases” that describe hunter evolution and their “lifetimes” as participants in the sport. However, these phases are based on a single study published 38 years ago (Jackson et al, 1984) that focused on male Wisconsin duck hunters. Hunting has undergone significant cultural, participatory, and communications shifts since 1984, and today these phases are likely quite different for women and other critical demographics, as well as other types of hunting. Basing today’s R3 efforts on the experiences of localized duck hunters nearly 40 years ago is likely misleading. Led by subject experts, this project examined people’s motivations to hunt and participate in recreational shooting. Statistical consumer segmentation techniques were employed to scientifically separate hunters and recreational shooters into unique personas based on their participation motivations and preferences and to then identify how people’s motivations shift over their lifetime as a hunter and/or target shooter. The results can significantly improve the effectiveness of R3 and marketing efforts within the hunting and recreational communities.

AUTHORS:  Keith Warnke, Midwestern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies;
Lou Cornicelli, Southwick Associates;
Luke Boehm, Southwick Associates

ABSTRACT:  Since the COVID-19 pandemic attendance at most state parks has increased, in some cases dramatically. This has placed a strain on park personnel and financial resources. A similar pandemic bump in hunting and fishing license sales was also observed. However, the boost in hunting and fishing sales has since subsided, and the trend of decreasing license sales across the United States dating back to the early 2000s has continued. Because state park visitors are interested in the outdoors, there may be potential for greater recruitment from this population. To better understand the recruitment potential into hunting, fishing, and target shooting, a panel of people who’ve taken at least one trip to a Midwestern state park in the past two years were surveyed. In this survey, trends in state park visitors hunting, fishing, and target shooting participation rates as well as their interest in continuing or starting these activities were identified. Additionally, visitors were surveyed to determine the communication channels, programs, and incentives that would make them more likely to participate in the future. The results of this survey can be used to help inform states on how to increase hunting, fishing, and target shooting recruitment from state park visitors.

AUTHORS:  Grace Milanowski, University of Minnesota Extension; Ellen Candler, University of Alaska; Amy Rager, University of Minnesota Extension; Joseph Bump, University of Minnesota

ABSTRACT:  The Offal Wildlife Watching project is a participatory science project that engages the deer hunting community in wildlife research. The goal of the project is to better understand the ecology of scavenger species that visit deer gut piles across Minnesota and to create a novel and meaningful program for hunter participation in research. We recruit and invite hunters to deploy remote cameras at white-tailed deer gut piles that resulted from their freshly killed deer. Thus far over 180 hunters have contributed images and recorded at least 60 different scavenger species over 6 seasons. We will present results of scavenger community biodiversity at hunter provided carrion, and visit/use dynamics across biomes. We will share successes and challenges from creating collaborations across sectors such as citizen hunting groups, the public, and researchers and recommendations for how this project can be adapted to other hunted species, biomes, and states. The results from this research will not only inform policy makers regarding protection and preservation of scavengers, but also contribute to the growing field of carrion ecology and establish data needed to clarify the impact that an anthropogenic, consolidated, and large pulse of carrion has on scavenger species.

AUTHORS:  Matt Harlow, DJ Case & Associates; Holly Mauslein, DJ Case & Associates; Alex Baer, International Hunter Education Association

ABSTRACT:  Research shows that many new hunters are interested in having mentors who can help introduce them to hunting. LearnHunting.org is a website designed to broker relationships between new adult hunters and experienced hunters who can offer one-on-one guidance and social support. The website’s roster of mentors has been prepopulated with state-certified hunter education instructors who are willing to provide guidance and support through this non-traditional medium.
The International Hunter Education Association-USA (IHEA-USA), eight pilot state agencies, and DJ Case & Associates (DJ Case) focused on creating and testing marketing campaigns in eight pilot states. These campaigns directed new and potential hunters to LearnHunting.org and encouraged them to select a hunting mentor through the platform.
Iowa, Maine, Nebraska, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Texas, and Washington participated in this marketing effort for LearnHunting.org. Unique digital ads were created for each state, linking to state-specific landing pages where a new adult hunter could select a mentor who met their needs, such as location, gender preference, etc.. Media where ads were tested included Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Pilot test results show that social media can provide a high number of impressions, but often at a higher cost. Paid search ads generate the next largest number of impressions but at a much lower cost per conversion and with a higher conversion rate. Simply stated, in this test, social media ads got agencies in front of the largest volume of people, while paid search ads got agencies in front of the right people at the right time. Key recommendations include using state logos in ads, performing social media burst campaigns that run prior to and overlap with an upcoming hunting season, and funding ongoing paid search campaigns to connect with new adult hunters during the right time in their hunting journey.

AUTHORS:  Rob Southwick, Southwick Associates;
Lou Cornicelli, Ph.D., Southwick Associates

ABSTRACT:  Knowing where to apply R3 efforts and when to make improvements requires monitoring participation trends in a timely manner. Likewise, understanding participation trends helps states and NGOs better identify and explain the issues needing attention. To better identify participation trends, state fish and wildlife agencies, industry, and NGO partners created the R3 dashboard that summarizes license sales and participation trends at the state, regional, and national levels. The work is funded by a Multistate Conservation grant. Using this resource augmented with other data sources, this presentation will report trends regarding hunting and fishing license sales by day/month/year, recruitment trends, and churn rates with insights provided by age, gender, and residency. The purpose is to help inform state and regional R3 planning efforts by showing where growth is happening, and where assistance may be needed.

AUTHORS:  Amy Bousman, Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks; Susan Steffan, Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks

ABSTRACT:  Participant feedback is critical to understand the impact R3 programs are having on participants; therefore, the greater goal of recruiting, retaining, or reactivating participants. We typically collect this feedback through formal, quantitative surveys. However, it is increasingly difficult to get participant feedback due to survey fatigue and program logistics (e.g., outdoor setting, language barriers, working with children, etc.). We will discuss the pragmatic, often qualitative, methods we used to collect participant feedback for programs that targeted underserved and nontraditional communities such as refugees and Indigenous peoples. We hope you can learn from our successful (and not-so-successful) efforts to maintain and strengthen these positive relationships while still capturing the much-needed participant feedback.