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WMA Adjacent Landowner Survey

Thank you!

FWC would like to thank everyone who gave their time to participate in this survey. Your responses are critical for informing the best decisions for our state’s natural resources. The survey period is now closed.

Survey Summary

From January to July of 2022, FWC randomly surveyed 5,000 private landowners with property near Wildlife Management Areas using a 28-question mail survey. We wanted to better understand how to work with landowners near WMAs to enhance the natural areas we manage and the societal benefits WMAs brings to our state. To reach this goal, our survey sought to understand four general ideas:

  1. What kinds of people/entities own land near WMAs?
  2. How do these landowners think about and use WMAs?
  3. How do these landowners think about and interact with FWC?
  4. How do these landowners manage their land?

Below, we’ve presented a selection of the survey question results with charts and graphs. To see all question results with charts and graphs, see the results PDF summary.

Survey Results

Most private landowners (88%) had heard of the Wildlife Management Area System in Florida.

A pie chart showing how many private landowners had heard of the Wildlife Management Area system in Florida

Figure 1: (Respondents = 1,141) Above, the pie chart shows the percentage of landowners who have heard of the Wildlife Management Area (WMA) system in Florida, with 88% saying yes they have and 12% saying they have not.

Private landowners listed a broad variety of activities when asked about their three main recreational activities at the nearest WMA to their land. The top three activities mentioned were fishing (32.8%), hiking (30.1%), and wildlife viewing (23.9%). See the chart for the full list.

A bar graph shows various activities performed in wildlife management areas by private landowners, ranked from highest to lowest.

(Respondents = 519) A bar graph shows the Wildlife Management Area activities engaged in by private landowners within the WMA nearest their land. Activities are ordered from greatest to lowest percentage of landowners as the following: fishing (32.8%), hiking (30.1%), wildlife viewing (23.9%), hunting (19.5%), walking (18.3%), sightseeing (12.5%), driving (8.9%), water recreation (non-motorized) (8.5%), bicycling (7.3%), water recreation (motorized) (7.1%), off-roach vehicle riding (5.0%), nature viewing (4.8%), exploring (3.9%), camping (3.3%), and target shooting (3.3%).

Private landowners appear to strongly prefer the WMA closest to their land, with most (75%) not having visited any other WMA area in the past 12 months.

Pie chart showing the percentage of landowners who visited other WMA system areas in the prior 12 months.

(Respondents = 1,024) A pie chart showing private landowners’ response to whether they visited other WMA system areas in the last 12 months with 26% saying they had and 74% saying they had not.

Private landowners also reported a high degree of trust in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), which we measured using a series of trust statements. Depending on the statement in the table below 61.5% - 75.9% of private landowners (outlined in red on table) trust FWC to do its job and make decisions.

A table showing five showing five statements concerning Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission trust and whether private landowners agreed or disagreed with each statement.

(Respondents = 1,020) The table above shows the percentage of landowners who disagreed or agreed with four statements of trust in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). For the 1st statement, “I am confident that the FWC will do a good job managing Florida’s WMAs”, respondents answered with the following answers and percentages: strongly disagree (1.4%), disagree (3.7%), neither agree or disagree (13.2%), agree (48.7%), strongly agree (27.2%), and don’t know (5.8%). For the 2nd statement, “I expect that the FWC will make the right decisions regarding WMAs”, respondents answered with the following: strongly disagree (1.4%), disagree (5.0%), neither agree or disagree (14.5%), agree (47.9%), strongly agree (24.4%), and don’t know (6.8%). For the 3rd statement, “I trust the FWC to take responsibility for managing Florida’s WMAs”, respondents answered with the following: strongly disagree (1.6%), disagree (4.1%), neither agree or disagree (12.7%), agree (49.8%), strongly agree (26.0%), and don’t know (5.8%). For the 4th statement, respondents answered with the following: strongly disagree (3.8%), disagree (6.4%), neither agree or disagree (19.2%), agree (41.0%), strongly agree (21.5%), and don’t know (8.1%).

Despite 92% of private landowners being aware of prescribed fire or controlled burns as intentional land management (Figure 4), most private landowners (51%) are not using prescribed fire or controlled burns on their property as a management practice (Figure 5).

A pie chart showing the percentage of private landowners who were aware of prescribed fire or controlled burns as intentional land management

(Respondents = 1,009) The pie chart above shows the percentage of private landowners who said whether they were aware of prescribed fire or controlled burns as intentional land management with 92% saying yes and 8% saying no.

A pie chart showing percentage of private landowners who use prescribed fire or controlled burns on their property

(Respondents = 1,009) The pie chart above shows the percentage of private landowners who use prescribed fire or controlled burns on their property with 12% saying they do, 51% saying they don’t, and 37% answering that the topic was not applicable.