The National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation is a nationwide survey that has been conducted about every five years since 1955. It is the only source of comprehensive information on participation and expenditures related to fishing, hunting, and wildlife recreation that is comparable on a state-by-state basis. It provides information on the number of participants in fishing, hunting, and wildlife watching (observing, photographing, and feeding wildlife) and the amount of time and money spent on those activities.I use information from this survey every working day to answer questions about how many individuals fish, hunt, or watch wildlife in Missouri and what they spend on those activities. The information on expenditures is used to calculate economic impacts. Further analysis of the data provides estimates of participation and economic impact for many individual species or categories of fish and wildlife.
The survey is the single best source for fishing, hunting, and wildlife-related recreation participation and expenditure information for the state of Missouri and the information is critically important for decision-makers and staff in the Missouri Department of Conservation.
The survey is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the request of the individual state agencies responsible for fish and wildlife management. The most recent survey was conducted in 2006 and the new data is expected to be available later this summer.
The survey is carefully designed and conducted using the most appropriate statistical methods. A representative sample of people nationwide is randomly selected to participate in the survey. In 2001, the U.S. Census Bureau collected information for the survey in two phases. The first phase was the screening sample which began in April 2001. During the screening phase, the Census Bureau interviewed a sample of 77,000 households nationwide to determine who in the household had fished, hunted, or wildlife watched in 2000, and who had engaged or planned to engage in those activities in 2001. In most cases, one adult household member provided information for all household members. The screen primarily covered 2000 activities while the next, more in-depth phase, covered 2001 activities.
The second phase of data collection consisted of three detailed interview waves. The first wave began in April 2001, the second in September 2001, and the last in January 2002. Interviews were conducted with samples of likely anglers, hunters, and wildlife watchers who were identified in the initial screening phase. The Census Bureau conducted these interviews primarily by telephone, with in-person interviews in the first and third interview waves for those respondents who could not be reached by telephone. Respondents in the detailed interviews were limited to persons at least 16 years old. Each respondent provided information pertaining only to his or her activities and expenditures. Sample sizes were designed to provide statistically reliable results at the State level. Altogether, interviews were completed for 25,070 respondents from the sportspersons sample and 15,303 from the wildlife watchers sample. The response rate for the screen phase was 75%. For the sportspersons sample it was 88% and for the wildlife-watching sample, 90%.
A wide variety of reports are prepared using data from the survey. More information about the 2001 National Survey and a listing of available reports is available at: http://federalaid.fws.gov/surveys/surveys.html
A listing, with links to pdf files available, of the national reports and the reports for the individual states for both the 2001 and 1996 surveys is available at: http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/fishing.html
The actual data from the survey is available, along with a data dictionary, at: http://www.bls.census.gov/ferretftp.htm#fish_hunt and data can be extracted online to create custom datasets using a utility from the Census Bureau at: http://dataferrett.census.gov/
Additional economic analysis that uses data from the National Survey is conducted by Southwick Associates, a private economics company, and is available at: http://www.southwickassociates.com/freereports/default.aspx
No comments:
Post a Comment