Wildlife Agency Trust and Perceived Risks From Chronic Wasting Disease

We examined the extent that hunters’ perceptions of risks related to chronic wasting disease (CWD) and trust in state wildlife agencies to address CWD were related to their demographic (sex, age, education, residence) and hunting (CWD presence, type of hunter, years hunting in state, harvest) characteristics. Demographic and hunting characteristics have been suggested by some managers and researchers to be strongly related to perceived risks and trust in wildlife agencies. We obtained data from a mail survey (n = 9,567) of hunters in 8 states (2004). Demographic and hunting characteristics were statistically related to both risk and trust, but the relationships were complex for several reasons. First, although the demographic variables were significantly related to both risk and trust in 11 of the 15 tests, almost all of the effect sizes (η) were minimal (