9395

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9395
• Author: Vaske, J. J., M. P. Donnelly and M. Lyon.
• Title: Knowledge, Beliefs, and Attitudes Toward the Endangered Fish of the Upper Colorado River Basin.
• USFW Year: 1995.
• USFW - Doc Type: 20,
• Copyright Material: NO

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2 Endangered Fish Survey

report focuses on this social component of the recovery effort, More specifically, the
objectives were to: .

1, Detennine Colorado and Utah residents' level of awareness and knowledge about the
decline of the four endangered fish of the Upper Colorado River Basin,

2. Examine residents' beliefs about and attitudes toward the recovery and preservation of
the endangered fish,

3. Assess the publics' general support for the recovery of the four endangered fish, as weD
as their specific support for the Recovery Program for the Endangered Fish of the
Upper Colorado River Basin.

4, Evaluate public beliefs, attitudes, and support for the stocking of non-native sportfish
such as bass, catfish, and tiger muskie in the Upper Colorado River Basin,

Data for this report were obtained from a telephone survey of Colorado and Utah residents
who live in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Interviews were conducted during the spring of
1994, using the Human Dimensions in Natural Resources Unit's telephone survey lab at
Colorado State University, This section outlines the sampling design, procedures that were
used to acquire the data, and the types of questions that were asked.

Sampling Design

The study population included Colorado and Utah residents who live in the Upper Colorado
River Basin. Specific groups of individuals in this population may differ in their knowledge
level and attitudes toward endangered fish, Anglers, for example, who believe the native fish
are a threat to their preferred sportfish may hold different attitudes toward the recovery effort
than environmentalists who believe all species should be preserved, Local elected officials
concerned with ensuring a sufficient water supply may differ from members of the general
public who do not associate water shortages with the preservation of specific fish species,
Recognizing this diversity, a stratified random sampling design was used. The four strata were:
anglers, environmental organization members, local elected officials, and the general public,
Within each of the four strata, respondents were randomly selected,

Local elected officials were defined as town mayors, city council members, and county
commissioners, Names and phone numbers for individuals in this strata were obtained from
published documents. Environmental group members were individuals who belonged to one or
more environmental or wildlife related groups (e,g" Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund, Ducks
Unlimited, or The Nature Conservancy), Address information for this strata was provided by
Survey Sampling, Inc, Anglers were drawn from license records provided by the Colorado
Division of Wildlife (CDOW) and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR), The
general public sample was obtained from a computer generated list of phone numbers,
Screening questions at the beginning of the telephone survey were used to further classit)r
respondents into distinct groupings. Thus, the anglers who were included in the study did not
belong to any environmental organizations, Environmental group members did not fish.
People who were selected as representative of the general public did not fish, were not
members of an environmental group, and had not been elected to a local public office,