Evaluating the effectiveness of two outreach programs: Wildlife habitat workshops and personal site-visits

The future of wildlife populations across the nation is threatened with the large loss of private lands each year. In Michigan, 96% of southern Michigan's land base is currently privately owned. Therefore, it is critical to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Wildlife Division that private landowners are informed about managing their lands in the best interest of wildlife.; The DNR provided funding to county Conservation Districts (CD) so the CD could create wildlife habitat workshops and personal site-visits that would teach private landowners how to manage their property for wildlife. This research project was designed to evaluate those efforts by assessing changes in participant knowledge, attitudes and behaviors and by assessing whether training resulted in positive changes for wildlife in southern Lower Michigan. Evaluation surveys were distributed to gather data. And, a field evaluation model was created to determine what actual changes were being made on the property to benefit wildlife.; Results indicated that positive changes occurred on private lands although they were not consistent. The two outreach programs did increase landowner knowledge about wildlife management. In addition, participants had a high opinion of the DNR and were highly motivated to make changes to their property.