Submitted by Luke Macaulay on
his project seeks to analyze diverse state policy approaches to incentivize habitat conservation and improvement on private land as it relates to hunting, game management, and public access programs across the U.S.
Past URAP student participants have already gathered data from all 50 states about various program categories, and been involved as co-authors in drafting a white paper that has been presented at 2 academic conferences and one state policy conference.
Next analytical steps include assessing success of various programs by gathering more detailed information about select state programs. This may include gathering existing survey data and interviewing landowner participants and/or managers of these programs. Additional avenues for exploration depending on student skills and interest include gathering temporal information on development and implementation of various programs, and testing differential outcomes under divergent policies.
Link to our current working paper on the topic: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LUWm3i1i-Jsg4pUlbrSqYxLxC7b8KJKy1bGt...
Additional background on the topic: https://www.perc.org/2001/10/01/hunting-for-habitat/
• Interest in learning about research and publication processes. • Interest in rangeland ecology, wildlife, policies that impact conservation, land tenure and ownership. • Careful data entry and analysis are critical as we will be presenting this information to state policy makers who are highly aware of the details of their programs. • Students will gain a working knowledge of data entry and manipulation in Google Sheets and will have the opportunity to learn how to use R for making maps and generating summary statistics. • Ability to communicate effectively on the phone and via email. Comfort reaching out to agency personnel (cold-calling and cold-emailing) • Ability to think broadly about how to organize qualitative data • Curiosity, creativity, and desire to chase information online, by email, and by phone until it is found