Game Harvest Survey- it's in your hands

[CNP]

I don't know how this survey makes any interpretation on animal population. It only asks if I harvested an animal. I've seen hundreds of WT deer. None that I really felt compelled to harvest........in the end I filled my freezer with a small buck. So I hunted many days to harvest one WT. What kind of story does this survey provide? If the survey is only a harvest survey....i.e., then it has done it's job. It is not a population survey.

Moose. I saw lots of moose. Some nice bulls. Closest was 15 yards away. Always hunting with a bow........but never did a shot present itself. So the survey asks me what WMU's I hunted in (3), how many days I hunted (lots) and did I harvest a moose. No. The survey questions do not provide any population information at all. It would appear from the survey that the WMU's I hunted in had few moose.......but in fact the opposite is true. It is not a population survey.

[Leafy]

Kind of sad that our community would argue over something so simple as a Survey in regards to our wildlife.

Yes, anyone can skew the data by false representation of their season, but why is beyond me.

This may not be the ultimate system but at least some data is being collected and hopefully most will be honest in their submissions.

[packhuntr]

Originally Posted by Leafy

Kind of sad that our community would argue over something so simple as a Survey in regards to our wildlife.

Yes, anyone can skew the data by false representation of their season, but why is beyond me.

This may not be the ultimate system but at least some data is being collected and hopefully most will be honest in their submissions.

What is this surveys purpose? Fill it out, for what,, why? Never has any of our input had such little bearing as it has the last 8 to 10 odd years up till now. Our wildlife managers do as they please, in some cases fraudulently, and it has been proven that your "input" is not relevant. Only when teamed up and in defence have the owners voices been heard,, excluding of course the we want more harvest and opportunity crowd, but we all know why that is... So fill these out, i merely ask why? From where i stand its merely a funds and time wasting ploy to justify jobs, in addition to giving people a false feeling of contribution,,, of what? Good question. Clear as mud lol

[Leafy]

Originally Posted by packhuntr

What is this surveys purpose? Fill it out, for what,, why? Never has any of our input had such little bearing as it has the last 8 to 10 odd years up till now. Our wildlife managers do as they please, in some cases fraudulently, and it has been proven that your "input" is not relevant. Only when teamed up and in defence have the owners voices been heard,, excluding of course the we want more harvest and opportunity crowd, but we all know why that is... So fill these out, i merely ask why? From where i stand its merely a funds and time wasting ploy to justify jobs, in addition to giving people a false feeling of contribution,,, of what? Good question. Clear as mud lol

I can not answer for those in charge of utilizing this data and how they intend on using it. All I know is this survey is a small effort on my part to be honest and hope for the best.

Any effort is better than none...

[fish_e_o]

i was waiting for the email!

thanks for posting this i would have missed it

[Dacotensis]

Originally Posted by michaelmicallef

What would someone have to gain buy fudging the answers. In the end every one should remember its your resource why f it up for yourself. If 90 % of the people that did this survey where accurate it would only help with management. It's not that involved anyways what's the big deal with doing it properly. Getting fed up with people's stupidity these days.

Part of the problem is out of 100% of hunters. How many are doing the survey?
Have those numbers ever been presented anywhere?
See the stupidity?

[JonBoy]

Some data is better than none. You can talk about how "incomplete" it is but, if it's CONSISTENTLY incomplete, the data is still usable.

So only 15% (made-up number by me) of hunters do the survey? That's okay, as long as the end-user takes it into consideration. Consistent input allows for assumptions and use of the data for decisions that will affect us tomorrow.

To say you won't participate because you don't know how it's used or because you think it's a poor survey is nonsensical. What you're saying is that you'd rather they made decisions with NO information than (at worst) partially correct information. You'd seriously rather they (F&W) made decisions based on what they saw rather than what a few thousand others saw on their hunts?

All I can say is, if you won't participate, you at least can't complain about the decisions they make. Much like politics, I guess - if you don't vote, you can't complain. And, like politics, this is much the same choice - the lesser of two evils (incomplete or poor survey) is better than decisions based on personal opinion or pulling ideas out of your closest orifice.

[newguy]

great post from some members here. You can question all you like... You bore me with your posts complaining about the state of our wildlife but balk at an opportunity to give your honest opinion about it.

If you don't want to fill out the survey, fine. Shut your yap and turn off your computer and turn on the tv.

I'll be filling mine out and I know many other people will too. And they won't complain about it.

[Donkey Oatey]

Done and done.

Can't see how this can be a bad thing. More information is better than less.

[Stinky Buffalo]

Filled mine in as well.

Filled zero tags this year, but the time out in the woods with family and friends was priceless.

[grinr]

Originally Posted by JonBoy

Some data is better than none. You can talk about how "incomplete" it is but, if it's CONSISTENTLY incomplete, the data is still usable.

So only 15% (made-up number by me) of hunters do the survey? That's okay, as long as the end-user takes it into consideration. Consistent input allows for assumptions and use of the data for decisions that will affect us tomorrow.

To say you won't participate because you don't know how it's used or because you think it's a poor survey is nonsensical. What you're saying is that you'd rather they made decisions with NO information than (at worst) partially correct information.

Sorry,but must respectfully disagree,I'd say NO information is better then partial in some cases.Reporting a filled tag only tells a very small piece of the story.....ie;from late Sept til Nov.30 I hunted 17 full days within 4 WMUs.5 days targeting elk,2 legal bulls in the crosshairs,zero shots fired at elk,filled 1 supp WT tag.12 days in Nov chasing WT,a dozen small bucks passed up,well over 100 skinheads,a few opps at shooters that didn't pan out for one reason or another.
Whoever is tasked with interpreting my data only sees one WT doe killed over 17 days effort....paints a pretty bleak picture,no?
What the survey does not reflect is that in zone xxx I "could have" averaged a legal bull elk every 2.5 days,and most days in Nov could have killed 10+ deer.
I had an absolute blast hunting this fall with game out the ying yang for the taking.....my survey responses would indicate that there's not a deer to be found across 3 counties....how is this helpful in any way?

[JonBoy]

Your problem is that you are making an assumption about how they will use the data. The fact is, you don't know how they will use it. You are also forgetting about everyone else that submitted their data. Yours may be an outlier. Yours may be perfectly typical for a good year (or a bad year - who knows?).

You've actually made my point perfectly. You are refusing to share your data because you feel it won't be used correctly. You only had a few tags and you filled some of them.

I could tell you a half dozen good ways that your data could be interpreted well, including:

1. You are selective about what you shoot
2. You like to be in the bush
3. You don't pressure a single hunting location too much

I just find it funny that your fear of how they'll use it is keeping you from sharing your information. LOTS of hunters don't shoot everything that crosses their path. LOTS of hunters only take really good animals. LOTS of hunters just like to be out there, seeing animals and waiting for the best chance. In the end, the greatest common factors of the hunt this year will rise to the top. Your fear that your "poor success" (as defined by you) will somehow negatively impact hunting is unfounded, primarily because you don't look at the big picture (thousands of other responses that will always even it out).

[Flatlandliver]

Originally Posted by Flatlandliver

Done what I could. Still one tag active.

All done now.

[southunter]

Grinr wouldn't it tell the bio that you killed a wt doe in WMU xxx. With enough people responding in WMU xxx they can extrapulate how many does were in killed in that zone and what % of hunters killed deer there? Again it doesn't tell the whole story but it is more data than they had before. To boot is also collected in a very economical way which is important with the meager budgets available to them. It wouldn't be possible to do a wt aerial survey every year in WMU xxx but trends can be interpreted with this data.

It only took two minutes of my time to fill out.

[dmcbride]

I think a lot of the people that are posting think this survey is used to determine the amount of animals in a given Wmu. Isn't it just about if you filled a tag or not and from where?
The way I see it they just want to know how many animals were taken regardless if you passed on 300 bucks and didn't fill your tag. They have other ways of determining population levels for a Wmu.(aerial survey, vehicle collisions ect.) In my opinion it is used to see how successful hunters are as a whole per Wmu. Some Wmu's are harder to hunt and it doesn't meen there is a lack of animals, it just meens that hunters aren't as successful in that Wmu compared to other Wmu's.
Some data is better than no data. Personally it should be made mandatory to fill out the survey.