Minnesota Wildlife Management Areas: Understanding Visitor Preferences

State-owned lands, held in trust for the public, are used for many different purposes by both state agencies and the public. In Minnesota, the 1.2 million acre Wildlife Management Area (WMAs) system is comprised of 1,400... [ view full abstract ]

State-owned lands, held in trust for the public, are used for many different purposes by both state agencies and the public. In Minnesota, the 1.2 million acre Wildlife Management Area (WMAs) system is comprised of 1,400 distinct units. These units are managed to maintain high-quality wildlife habitat and provide outdoor recreational opportunities, including hunting and wildlife watching. Wildlife managers want to understand who uses these areas and which recreational activities they are seeking. We completed a two-part study that will help inform specific uses of WMAs and assist Minnesota Department of Natural Resource wildlife managers with achieving management goals on those units. We estimated visitor-use levels through field observations and on-site intercepts. Visitors to WMAs were identified through field contacts with an additional subsample collected through an invitation postcard sent to a random selection (n = 5,000) of pheasant stamp holders. We collected information about visitor expenses, experiences, and management preferences using a multi-modal survey targeting WMA users during fall 2015. We conducted cluster analyses and created six typologies defined by their experience preference and place attachments to WMAs. With these typologies, we compared the differences and similarities between visitor satisfaction, perceptions of management actions, and constraints to visiting WMAs. With the information collected from this study, we can provide increased knowledge of WMA visitors as well as a deeper understanding of user’s expectations of their visits to WMAs.