In 1997, I conducted a study of public attitudes towards, knowledge of, and behavioral relations with wolves, rare and endangered wildlife, and natural resources in Wisconsin. A self-administered survey questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of all registered license plate owners in Wisconsin, as well as a random sample of all license plate owners who purchased the new Endangered Resources (ER) license plate provided by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Bureau of Endangered Resources. The overall response rate to the mail survey was 78.7 percent, with response rates of 87.2 percent for Endangered Species license plate owners and 69.7 percent for all Wisconsin license plate owners.
Various results are included in this report regarding public support for endangered resources and environmental protection in Wisconsin. Information is reviewed as regards to public knowledge of, and attitudes towards, wolves, rare and endangered species and proposed statewide policies that might affect them. Basic attitudes towards environmental conservation and endangered species protection are also explored among various constituencies and demographic groups in the state.
The data for this analysis were obtained from the responses of randomly selected respondents drawn from Wisconsin Department of Transportation (DOT) license plate records last updated in January 1997. All responses were entered, coded, and statistically analyzed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Rural Sociology using SPSS statistical software.
Sampling
The survey effort was divided into two separate populations: the first sample was drawn from all registered license plate owners who owned an Endangered Resources license plate (excluding all business and government vehicles). The second sample was drawn from all other registered license plate owners (excluding ER plate owners, businesses, and government vehicles) in the state of Wisconsin. Approximately 90 percent of Wisconsin residents reside in the southern counties of the state. Therefore it was necessary to oversample residents from northern Wisconsin within each sampling population in order to have a sufficient number of cases for analysis by place of residence (See Table H1). Based on this objective, a sample of 300 license plate owners from northern Wisconsin and 400 license plate owners from southern Wisconsin for each sample population were drawn, resulting in a total of 1400 respondents.
| Table H1 Sampling Plan |
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| Sampling Population Size | Study Sample Size | |
| Endangered Resources Sample | 21,075 |
700 |
| North | 843(4%) |
300 |
| South | 20,232(96%) |
400 |
| Non-Endangered Resources Sample | 5,000,000 |
700 |
| North | 350,000(7%) |
300 |
| South | 4,650,000(93%) |
400 |
PUBLIC BELIEFS AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS PROTECTING WOLVES, ENDANGERED SPECIES AND NATURAL RESOURCES IN WISCONSIN
Results about public beliefs and attitudes towards wolves, natural resources, the environment, and willingness to support future funding efforts for their protection are examined in this report. This section presents data obtained from responses to a series of questions regarding rare and endangered species and wolves.
A majority of respondents in the survey expressed pro-wildlife and pro-environmental attitudes. What is perhaps most interesting, is the strength and direction of pro-environmental responses. Table H2 shows, when asked whether they think protecting rare plants and animals helps to maintain the integrity of the environment 98.5 percent of those with ER plates and 88.4 percent of all Wisconsin plateholders sampled indicate a probably or definitely yes.
| Table H2 Do you think that protecting rare plants and animals helps maintain the intergrity of the natural environment? |
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| definitely no |
probably no |
not sure | probably yes |
definitely yes |
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| Plate Type | ENDANGERED | .6% | .3% | .6% | 18.8% | 79.7% |
| ALL WISCONSIN | .8% | 5.4% | 5.4% | 34.6% | 53.8% | |
All respondents were presented with specific questions regarding predators in the state of Wisconsin: including attitudes (1) towards protection of predators in Wisconsin such as Timber Wolf, the Barn Owl and the Lynx and (2) support for Wisconsin DNR efforts to increase the number of wolves.
Over ninety seven percent of the ER group stated that the protection of rare predators was important (97.3%) and more than three-quarters of the group (79.2%) actually stated that it was extremely important (Table H3). Most other Wisconsin drivers (79.8%) stated that it was at least somewhat important to protect rare predators in Wisconsin, and less than 9 percent (8.6%) stated that it was unimportant.
| Table H3 For you, how important is the protection of rare predators like the wolf, the barn owl and the lynx in Wisconsin? |
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| not at all important | somewhat unimportant | mixed | somewhat important | extremely important | ||
| Plate Type | ENDANGERED | .0% | .6% | 2.1% | 18.1% | 79.2% |
| ALL WISCONSIN | 4.6% | 4.0% | 11.6% | 40.4% | 39.4% | |
Table H4 shows the results when respondents are asked about the wolf in Wisconsin-a predator with a long and notoriously negative image in popular folklore. Approximately ninety percent of all ER license plate owners (89.8%) support efforts by the Wisconsin DNR to increase the number of wolves living in the state. An additional nine percent (9.0%) of these respondents are ambivalent about the issue of wolves in Wisconsin, while slightly over one percent (1.2%) are opposed to the idea. For all other Wisconsin license owners the pattern is more mixed.
| Table H4 Overall, how much do you support efforts by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to increase the number of wolves living in Wisconsin? |
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| strongly oppose | moderately oppose | neither support nor oppose | moderately support | strongly support | ||
| Plate Type | ENDANGERED | .9% | .3% | 9.0% | 29.0% | 60.8% |
| ALL WISCONSIN | 8.0% | 6.8% | 35.0% | 30.6% | 19.6% | |
Fifty percent of all Wisconsin license plate owners (50.2%) support efforts by the Wisconsin DNR to increase the number of wolves. Approximately fourteen percent (14.8%) of all license holders actually oppose these efforts. In sum, among the driving population in Wisconsin, there seems to be widespread public support for efforts designed to increase the number of wolves now living in the State of Wisconsin.
Past Outdoor and Wildlife related Activities
Hunters, anglers, and nonconsumptive wildlife users were identified from the survey data according to their responses to a series of questions dealing with past participation in Wildlife related activities. Specifically, respondents were asked if they had hunted, fished, birdwatched or taken a trip away from home primarily to view, photograph or listen to wildlife in the last 12 months.
| Table H5 ER License plate holder's participation in Wildlife related activities |
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| no | yes | don't know | |
| Hunt last 12 months | 76.3% | 23.7% | |
| Hunt Ever | 62.9% | 37.1% | |
| Fish last 12 months | 52.3% | 47.7% | |
| Birdwatch | 20.3% | 79.7% | |
| Nonconsumptive Wildlife Use | 18.7% | 80.7% | .6% |
ER plate holders represent less people that have hunted in the last year than regular Wisconsin license holders (23.7% versus 37.1%) . The percentages of people who were anglers was similar between groups. ER plate holders are more likely than the overall group to have participated in birdwatching (79.7%) or taken a trip at least one mile away from their place of residence to view, photograph or listen to wildlife in the previous 12 months (80.7%).
| Table H6 "All Wisconsin" License plate holder's participation in Wildlife related activities |
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| no | yes | don't know | |
| Hunt last 12 months | 65.5% | 34.5% | |
| Hunt Ever | 50.5% | 49.5% | |
| Fish last 12 months | 48.6% | 51.4% | |
| Birdwatch | 27.8% | 72.2% | |
| Nonconsumptive Wildlife Use | 24.8% | 73.2% | 2.0% |
The trend towards non-consumptive use of wildlife is not limited to the ER subgroup. Most Wisconsin license plate holders also participated in birdwatching (72.2%) and nonconsumptive wildlife use (73.2%). In sum, all people who own a licensed vehicle (both ER and all other license plate holders) in Wisconsin are more than twice as likely to have participated in non-consumptive wildlife uses during the last year than they are to have hunted.
I examined attitudes toward predators based on wildlife-related activities (Table H7). There is considerable support for the protection of rare predators among "All Wisconsin" respondents who have hunted and who have participated in nonconsumptive uses of wildlife in the last year. For respondents who have hunted at least once, seventy eight percent (78.3%) feel that it is either somewhat or extremely important to protect rare predators. For respondents who have never hunted, slightly over eighty percent (80.7%) feel that the protection of rare predators is important. For those respondents who participated in nonconsumptive uses of wildlife over the last year, almost eighty five percent (84.5%) feel that the protection of rare predators is somewhat or extremely important, while less than sixty five percent (64.5%) of respondents who have not done so feel that their protection is important.
| Table H7 For you, how important is the protection of rare predators like the wolf, the barn owl and the lynx in Wisconsin? |
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Rare Predator Protection |
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| not at all important |
somewhat important |
mixed | somewhat important |
extremely important |
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| Hunt Ever | no | 4.7% | 3.1% | 11.5% | 36.8% | 43.9% |
| yes | 4.6% | 5.0% | 12.1% | 43.2% | 35.1% | |
| Hunt last 12 months | no | 3.6% | 4.1% | 11.9% | 38.8% | 41.5% |
| yes | 6.6% | 3.9% | 11.5% | 42.1% | 35.9% | |
| Noncomsumptive Wildlife Use |
no | 7.5% | 8.6% | 19.4% | 35.9% | 28.6% |
| yes | 3.4% | 2.8% | 9.3% | 41.5% | 43.0% | |
Differences between hunters and non-hunters in their attitudes toward increasing wolves was slight (Table H8). For respondents who have hunted at least once, nearly fifty percent (46.7%) stated that they support efforts to increase the number of wolves living in Wisconsin. Only 20% opposed increasing wolf numbers. For non-hunters, fifty four percent (54.2%) of respondents support these efforts. About fifty six percent (56.1%) of all respondents who have participated in the nonconsumptive use of wildlife, support efforts to increase wolf numbers, while only slightly more than thirty percent (33.2%) of respondents who have not participated in nonconsumptive activities support such efforts. There appears to be support by both hunters and nonconsumptive wildlife users for increasing wolf numbers.
| Table H8 Overall, how much do you support efforts by the Wisconsin Departmnet of Natural Resources (WDNR) to increase the number of wolves living in Wisconsin? |
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Support for DNR Increasing Number of Wolves in Wisconsin |
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| Strongly Oppose | Moderately Oppose | Neither Support nor Oppose | Moderately Support | Strongly Support | ||
| Hunt Ever | no | 3.3% | 6.4% | 36.1% | 33.5% | 20.7% |
| yes | 13% | 7.5% | 32.8% | 28.4% | 18.3% | |
| Hunt last 12 months | no | 5.5% | 6.9% | 35.2% | 33.3% | 19.1% |
| yes | 13.1% | 7% | 33.1% | 26.5% | 20.3% | |
| Noncomsumptive Wildlife Use |
no | 15.9% | 4.5% | 46.3% | 24.3% | 8.9% |
| yes | 4.9% | 8.1% | 30.9% | 32.9% | 23.2% | |
These results suggest that fairly strong pro-wildlife and pro-environmental attitudes exist among the Wisconsin population. Moreover, there is a considerable amount of popular support for the protection of rare and endangered predators in Wisconsin, including the wolf. The data show that there is also widespread popular support for current efforts by the Wisconsin DNR to increase the number of wolves living in Wisconsin. While this is moderated somewhat by the extent to which people have participated in activities such as hunting and nonconsumptive uses of wildlife, a majority of all respondents to the survey expressed support for increasing the number of wolves living in Wisconsin .