The Missouri Department of Conservation hired its first full-time social researcher in 1978. The Department had already hired full-time statisticians and biologists to help guide a wide range of research, including social and economic research. In 1984 the first full-time economist was hired. Many biologists also conducted social research projects as part of their ongoing efforts, particularly related to fishing and hunting harvest and participation. I joined the staff in 1991 to conduct social research. And since that time several additional staff have been employed, to conduct statewide opinion surveys, to conduct and coordinate harvest and participation surveys, to coordinate forest economics information and research, to conduct waterfowl social research, to conduct focus groups, to respond to citizens as an Ombudsman, to conduct public meeting forums, and to provide staff with assistance on a wide range of public involvement methods.
Social and economic research was certainly not new, prior to 1978, for the Missouri Department of Conservation. In 1942, the Conservation Commission asked Department staff, including Conservation Agents, to find out about public perceptions of Department progress. In 1945, Rudolf Bennitt reported on some social aspects of quail hunting using data collected from 1938 to 1944. In the early 1970s, a study was conducted for the Citizens Conservation Committee, a private citizens committee, to determine the preference of Missourians for either a soft drink tax or a sales tax to fund conservation activities. Missourians did not indicate a preference for the type of tax in that survey. It was in 1975 that the Conservation Commission endorsed the efforts of that committee of private citizens to seek a ballot initiative to place a sales tax for conservation efforts before the citizens of Missouri. The vote in 1976 to create a Conservation Sales Tax helped provide funding for the Missouri Department of Conservation that has enabled staff to make more accountable conservation decisions. Decisions and Department staff are more accountable today because of the increased number of full-time staff dedicated to listening to and learning about the opinions of Missourians and the increased number of surveys and public involvement efforts that make it easier for Missourians to provide their opinions and participation preferences for fish, forest, and wildlife management. It is these "human dimensions" efforts that continue to be an important part of accountable decision-making.
Human Dimensions is a term that developed in the 1970s as resource professionals and educators combined aspects of sociology, economics, organizational management, and psychology into resource management. Although the term may be relatively new, the idea is not. Aldo Leopold stated in 1930 that wildlife conservation would make the greatest advances if it drew support from a broad-based constituency. As human dimensions has developed since the 1970s, it is about understanding the “people” aspects of resource management and understanding the many citizen interests in fish, forests, and wildlife and their expectations and satisfaction with management efforts.
Human dimensions can be equated with social and economic information. A business would call it “market information;” that is, information about their customers and the expectations and responses to their products and services. Human dimensions certainly includes aspects of customer satisfaction and also public input and involvement in decision-making processes.
How is human dimensions information used? Human dimensions can be like an informational highway sign that confirms something you may have already observed. It provides accountability for your intuition or what you may already know to be true. It can provide new insights or new information about activities and expectations. Human dimensions information is useful as performance measures or in determining satisfaction levels. The information can be very useful in developing or modifying programs and services to improve the quality of service or to improve the efficiency of the business processes to provide programs and services.
It is the intense effort that the Missouri Department of Conservation applies to listening to Missourians, to learning about the human dimensions of conservation, that allows the opinions of Missourians to be heard and then used in conservation decisions. It is this intense effort that makes the opinions of Missourians count in conservation decisions.
More information about how the conservation opinions of Missourians count is in a recent article in the Missouri Conservationist magazine, entitled "Your Opinion Counts" which is available at: http://www.mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2007/01/20.htm
Social and economic research was certainly not new, prior to 1978, for the Missouri Department of Conservation. In 1942, the Conservation Commission asked Department staff, including Conservation Agents, to find out about public perceptions of Department progress. In 1945, Rudolf Bennitt reported on some social aspects of quail hunting using data collected from 1938 to 1944. In the early 1970s, a study was conducted for the Citizens Conservation Committee, a private citizens committee, to determine the preference of Missourians for either a soft drink tax or a sales tax to fund conservation activities. Missourians did not indicate a preference for the type of tax in that survey. It was in 1975 that the Conservation Commission endorsed the efforts of that committee of private citizens to seek a ballot initiative to place a sales tax for conservation efforts before the citizens of Missouri. The vote in 1976 to create a Conservation Sales Tax helped provide funding for the Missouri Department of Conservation that has enabled staff to make more accountable conservation decisions. Decisions and Department staff are more accountable today because of the increased number of full-time staff dedicated to listening to and learning about the opinions of Missourians and the increased number of surveys and public involvement efforts that make it easier for Missourians to provide their opinions and participation preferences for fish, forest, and wildlife management. It is these "human dimensions" efforts that continue to be an important part of accountable decision-making.
Human Dimensions is a term that developed in the 1970s as resource professionals and educators combined aspects of sociology, economics, organizational management, and psychology into resource management. Although the term may be relatively new, the idea is not. Aldo Leopold stated in 1930 that wildlife conservation would make the greatest advances if it drew support from a broad-based constituency. As human dimensions has developed since the 1970s, it is about understanding the “people” aspects of resource management and understanding the many citizen interests in fish, forests, and wildlife and their expectations and satisfaction with management efforts.
Human dimensions can be equated with social and economic information. A business would call it “market information;” that is, information about their customers and the expectations and responses to their products and services. Human dimensions certainly includes aspects of customer satisfaction and also public input and involvement in decision-making processes.
How is human dimensions information used? Human dimensions can be like an informational highway sign that confirms something you may have already observed. It provides accountability for your intuition or what you may already know to be true. It can provide new insights or new information about activities and expectations. Human dimensions information is useful as performance measures or in determining satisfaction levels. The information can be very useful in developing or modifying programs and services to improve the quality of service or to improve the efficiency of the business processes to provide programs and services.
It is the intense effort that the Missouri Department of Conservation applies to listening to Missourians, to learning about the human dimensions of conservation, that allows the opinions of Missourians to be heard and then used in conservation decisions. It is this intense effort that makes the opinions of Missourians count in conservation decisions.
More information about how the conservation opinions of Missourians count is in a recent article in the Missouri Conservationist magazine, entitled "Your Opinion Counts" which is available at: http://www.mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2007/01/20.htm
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