Local residents’ willingness to allow deer herd reduction and other CWD operations on their property

ABSTRACT

Herd reduction or reducing the population density of deer in infested areas is a widely considered method to combat CWD. However, the viability of this method relies on interest and cooperation from local residents that may have different values, attitudes towards such methods. This paper summarizes key findings from a recent survey of local residents in CWD infested area in West Tennessee to explain the barriers and opportunities in securing local cooperation for this method of CWD management. State wildlife agencies and their conservation partners will benefit from these findings in designing appropriate communication, outreach and incentive mechanism towards a successful CWD management.

KEYWORDS:

• CWD
• herd reduction
• landowners
• access

Acknowledgements

Authors are thankful to Chuck Yoest, Lisa Muller, Roger Applegate for their input during the development of survey questionnaire and Abigail Meeks for her assisatance in survey administration.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Funding from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) supported collection of data used in this study. Support from the USDA McIntire Stennis project (TEN00MS-116) is also acknowledged.