Excerpt
In the early 1990s, I conducted a survey of public values toward wildlife for the Colorado Division of Wildlife. The purpose of the study was to inform statewide wildlife planning. The planning was being conducted, in part, to identify new agency directions and embrace new stakeholders for wildlife in Colorado. The survey we conducted was one of our first uses of the concept of wildlife value orientations (see Bright, Manfredo, & Fulton,
2000; Fulton, Manfredo, & Lipscomb,
1996). After completion of the study, I was invited to report the findings at a formal meeting of the Colorado Wildlife Commission, the group with regulatory authority over wildlife in the state. That small group of people, appointed by the governor, is charged with representing the interests of the public in making decisions about wildlife in Colorado. Our findings showed that about three in ten Coloradoans held pro-animal-rights and antihunting beliefs. These results surprised members of the commission. After listening to my presentation, the chair of the Commission proceeded to deride the study findings. “I know the Colorado public,” he exhorted in a loud, angry voice, “and this is not what they are like. People in Colorado hunt and love hunting.” There were others who, in a more subdued fashion, acknowledged the significance of the findings. The display at that meeting, for me, is representative of a pervasive tension in North American wildlife management today. Professionals are uncertain about how to deal with growing societal opposition to the techniques and traditions of wildlife management. Controversy is most obvious on issues of hunting. For some professionals, the decline of hunting participation and the perceived rise of antihunting sentiment prompt responses of denial (such as I received), the urge to “fight back” against those who oppose hunting (e.g., passage of hunter rights bills – see Jacobson,
2006), and efforts directed at turning the trend of declining numbers of hunters (e.g., there is a proliferation of state agency hunter recruitment and retention efforts). At the same time, there are those within the wildlife profession who believe we must better understand and adapt to changing societal expectations about wildlife management. The case study reported here was commissioned by the Western Association of Fish in Wildlife Agencies in the spirit of learning and understanding. The purpose of the study was to examine the possibility of wildlife value shift among publics in the western United States, its causes, and its effects on the future of wildlife management. …
