My FWP Hunter Survey

[Caseknife]

Washington has a mandatory harvest report due by the end of January every year. Pretty simple online questionnaire. What the data is used for is not real apparent in the way the State manages wildlife, but it is mandatory.

 

[SAJ-99]

but when I questioned a former biologist about mandatory reporting they forwarded me a study showing the superiority of random sampling.

I vaguely remember this debate from another thread. There is study from another state that compared the two, and I believe that state still uses electronic mandatory reporting. My first reaction was “BS” but I assume there is some miscommunication. Random sampling can be done with phone calls or electronic harvest reports (or mailings). Random sampling vs mandatory reporting is a debate on sample size. The method of collection, phone vs internet, is a debate of trading one set of biases or errors for another. That I can understand not wanting to switch. But It would seem like they could easily create the harvest questions in electronic version and randomly send them out. I would argue the cost is pretty low too. Probably cheaper than the phone calls.

 

[Dave N]

Illinois has a mandatory deer harvest check-in we do online. Asks what county, public or private land, weapon used, male or female, face measurement, point count and base measurement, and how many turkey or bobcats seen if any. I think that's it. Wouldn't be hard to get a system like that for you guys.

 

[sapperJ24]

Just got called. Only question was, "did you harvest any elk this year?" No questions on effort or where. Maybe there would have been a follow up if I said yes. I have no confidence in the reliability or statistical validity of the survey.

 

[SwaggyD]

Just got my elk call. “Did you hunt elk?”

“I did not”

“Aight thanks for taking the call”

She literally said “aight”

 

[mtmiller]

Put in my UT application this morning.

 

[MTGomer]

This year during my antelope survey I was asked, "Did you harvest your animal prior to, during, or after the season?"

“Yes”

 

[R.K.]

If Missouri and Illinois can figure it out for all deer and turkey harvest, then I’m fairly certain Montana can do the same. Phone call, internet, and app all work in Missouri. Haven’t hunted those in Illinois in forever.

I’ve seen things implemented very well in other places, and can’t figure out why Montana is fighting this so hard? All it takes is to include it in the next years application, like HIP info you already do for migratory birds. It’s frustratingly simple in my mind.

 

[chardin9255]

I agree with your assessment. I live in Missouri and only use the MO hunting app for the past 3-4 years.

 

[Montana_Wanderer]

I just did my FWP phone survey after some phone tag. She ask about upland birds, antelope and deer. What struck me as strange is she ask the county I hunted deer in and not the district. How can they come up with any sort of hunter days or harvest in an area with multiple districts in one county?

I hunt a lot and realized that I forgot some counties I hunted in. Mandatory reporting where I can sit down at my computer and make proper selections would be so much more accurate. Especially, if you memory is lacking like mine is some days!!

 

[peterk1234]

I just did my FWP phone survey after some phone tag. She ask about upland birds, antelope and deer. What struck me as strange is she ask the county I hunted deer in and not the district. How can they come up with any sort of hunter days or harvest in an area with multiple districts in one county?

I hunt a lot and realized that I forgot some counties I hunted in. Mandatory reporting where I can sit down at my computer and make proper selections would be so much more accurate. Especially, if you memory is lacking like mine is some days!!

I'd even settle for an in depth voluntary questionnaire that I could access online. Their questions are a joke. I want to be supportive of the process, but I just can't do it.

 

[Elktrack]

Cracks me up, she asked me if I hunted antelope in district ###.
Yes, that’s the tag I had.
Did you harvest?
Yes.
Did you harvest in district ###?
Yes.

I was half tempted to say no, I harvested in a different hunt district just to see what the response was.

 

[HappyCamper]

So far I’ve got a survey for deer only this year. They only cared what unit I was successful in and total days spend hunting statewide. Weird how it seems everyone gets a variation of questions, zero consistency.

 

[Flatbrimmer]

I was half tempted to say no, I harvested in a different hunt district just to see what the response was.

 

[Dakotakid]

In a previous year during my elk hunting response I mentioned seeing a large moose. The survey questions became very specific as to location of moose down to specific landowner.

I scratched my head after that conversation.

Supervisor “Hey- when you are doing the elk survey if anyone mentions moose, be sure to find out exactly where it was spotted”

Or someone poached a moose-“ find out where he was last seen?”

 

[8andcounting]

Cracks me up, she asked me if I hunted antelope in district ###.
Yes, that’s the tag I had.
Did you harvest?
Yes.
Did you harvest in district ###?
Yes.

I was half tempted to say no, I harvested in a different hunt district just to see what the response was.

Got that same kinda question few weeks ago about antelope . I said “the one I had the tag for “ when asked which unit I killed it in . lol . Then she asked about deer I said I never hunted deer . Never asked about my elk tag

 

[Mountain Mule]

Cracks me up, she asked me if I hunted antelope in district ###.
Yes, that’s the tag I had.
Did you harvest?
Yes.
Did you harvest in district ###?
Yes.

I was half tempted to say no, I harvested in a different hunt district just to see what the response was.

I don't believe they are allowed to say anything, at least that is my understanding. FWP is worried about people not returning calls and turning people off from contributing data. My understanding is that there is zero enforcement allowed during these calls and even suggestions that the person harvested something illegally is not allowed. It's actually fairly common for people to say they harvested in unit 'X' requiring a permit, despite them not holding that permit.

Sometimes at the end of data collection they have more bucks or bulls harvested from a LE permit area than the number of tags that were allocated that year. By sometimes I mean several units a year... it occurs in some units most years from my understanding.

 

[Eric Albus]

I've mentioned it before, but at a season setting public meeting a few years back, it was revealed that according to the phone surveys, more brow-tined bull elk are harvested in the Elkhorns than there are permits allocated. Maybe folks were confused about the information they were giving, maybe they were admitting to breaking the law, but either way finding out the truth was not pursued in the spirit of not wanting to thwart folks honesty in the phone surveys.

I just get the sense that so much data is bunk/unreliable.

It’s nothing to worry about, there’s nothing to see folks. Swamp gas. We already have a factor to negate the appearance of discrepancies with discretion