Norc will collaborate with the association of fish wildlife agencies (the association) and the projectcoordinator to conduct the 2027 national survey of fishing, hunting, and wildlife-associated…

This Project Grant award of $2,013,312.00 from the U.S. Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service under the Multistate Conservation Grant program (CFDA 15.628) will support the 2027 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation. The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) will collaborate with the Association of Fish Wildlife Agencies and a project coordinator to conduct the survey, which will comprise four data collection waves spanning approximately 15 months. The survey will use a mixed-mode, multi-sample approach to target 55,000 completed screener interviews and 75,000 detailed activity interviews across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. NORC will provide data analysis, reporting, and assistance with the publication of the 2027 survey results. The award period runs from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2029.

Norc will collaborate with the association of fish wildlife agencies (the association) and the projectcoordinator to conduct the 2027 national survey of fishing, hunting, and wildlife-associated recreation (national survey).norc will work with the association and project coordinator to make revisions and adjustments to thequestionnaire in advance of data collection. The 2027 national survey will comprise four total waves of datacollection spanning about 15 months. The first wave consists of a screener survey that asks the householdrespondent about each household members participation in various outdoor activities in the prior years OF2022-2026, as well as their own anticipated participation in hunting, fishing, and wildlife-associated recreationfor 2027. Based on their reported anticipated participation, the household respondent will be selected to receiveone of the three detailed activity questionnaireshunting, fishing, or wildlife watchingin three subsequentwaves of data collection. The detailed questionnaires will ask about the respondents participation andassociated expenditures in their respective activities during the 2027 calendar year. The 2027 national survey will use a mixed-mode and multi-sample survey of household-dwelling residents in all 50 states and the district of columbia. Norc will combine sample from three sample frames for optimal coverage: amerispeak (norcs probability-based panel), the USPS CDS file (used to select an ABS sample), and nonprobability panels. In addition, norc will explore and test the possibility of using lists of hunters or anglers compiled by a commercial vendor from license data to bolster the number of interviews with hunters or anglers. Survey outreach and data collection will vary by sample type. Norc will use a combination of mailings, emails, text messages, and phone calls to invite respondents to complete the survey, and respondents from the probability samples will have the ability to complete the survey online or via the phone. The sampling design will target 55,000 completed interviews for the screener survey and 75,000 completedinterviews for wave 3 of the detailed activity survey before accounting for state buy-in samples. Norcs approach to the 2027 national survey aims to minimize total survey error, and the design emphasizes mitigating potential recall and nonresponse bias. Norc recognizes that some states may wish to pay to obtain state-level information, and the national survey methodology is designed so that IT can be adapted to provide cost-effective state-level estimates for any state. In addition to providing data at the state level, state buy-in helps increase the precision of the national survey.norc will develop individual-level weights to estimate public participation and expenditures of recreationalfishing, hunting, and wildlife watching activities in the united states. Norc will incorporate many aspects ofthe weighting approach from the 2022 national survey to facilitate comparability of estimates across time.while accounting for any changes to the questionnaire and input from the association and other key stakeholders, norc will structure the coding and final datasets in a way that ensures that the overall structure is consistent with the data files norc produced for the 2022 national survey.norc will deliver a national preliminary overview, the tables included in attachments d and e in the RFP, anational technical report, and complete datasets from the 2027 national survey to the project coordinator. Norc will also help the association and project coordinator with the production of the 2027 national publicationthrough assistance with datasets, details of survey methodology, and anything else needed in their writing ofthis publication. In addition, norc is committed to the dissemination and promotion of the 2027 national survey.