Extension Communications
3614 Administrative Services Building
Ames, Iowa 50011-3614
(515) 294-9915
9/4/00
Contacts:
Paul Lasley, Extension Sociology, (515) 294-0937, plasley@iastate.edu
Jim Pease, Extension Animal Ecology, (515) 294-7429,
jlpease@iastate.edu
Del Marks, Extension Communication Systems, (515) 294-9807,
delmarks@iastate.edu
Farmers Say Presence of Wildlife on Iowa Farms Is Important
AMES, Iowa -- Eight Iowa farmers out of every 10 surveyed say it is important to have wildlife living on their farms, and two-thirds say wildlife have as much right to exist on their land as they do, according to the 2000 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll.
The attitudes among Iowa farmers toward the many wild creatures that inhabit the Iowa countryside have changed little in the last 10 years, said Paul Lasley, Iowa State University Extension rural sociologist who directs the poll. He was assisted in the wildlife portion of the survey by Jim Pease, ISU Extension animal ecologist and wildlife specialist. "We asked this set of questions in 1990 and were curious about how attitudes and opinions about wildlife might have changed over the past decade," Pease noted.
When similar questions were asked in the 1990 survey, 81 percent said the presence of wildlife on farms was important, just 2 percentage points less than the 83 percent who agreed with that statement this year. In 1990, 69 percent of those surveyed agreed with the view that wildlife have as much right to exist on the land as farmers, compared with 67 percent this year. "This is a strong indication of the importance of wildlife in the lives of farm families," Pease added.
While farmers generally are strong supporters of wildlife, comments written on this year's questionnaire indicated some specific areas of dissatisfaction. "We are getting too many deer in our community. They wreck too many crops, cars, trucks," a Jasper County farmer wrote. Deer "destroy our crops and trees," a Davis County farmer wrote. "Last week I hit two with my pickup causing major damage. Driving in the country is like driving through a game reserve," he said. Pease agreed that in selected areas of the state the over-abundance of some species can be a problem. Every year Pease gets many calls from property owners about problems of damage to plants abused by wildlife, especially to shrubs and trees.
A large majority of farmers, 72 percent, think illegal killing of wildlife should result in stiff penalties. However, that is a smaller percentage than in 1990, when 84 percent agreed that stiff penalties are needed.
Farmers also say they have a role in helping to preserve wildlife. Sixty-two percent said farmers should reduce the use of pesticides that are harmful to wildlife, and 53 percent said financial incentives would encourage them to do more for wildlife on their farm. Sixty-six percent also said the government should pay farmers to preserve habitat for wildlife. Related to that opinion, only 15 percent of the farmers surveyed agreed with the statement that wildlife habitat on their farm increases its market value.
"Comparing the two surveys we see relatively stable opinions about the importance of wildlife among producers," Lasley said. "Most of the differences we see between the 1990 and 2000 surveys are not statistically different," he noted.
"I love wildlife and I spend $120 a year feeding birds and fish and I will cohabit with wildlife as long as they do not destroy any of my crops," a Jones County farmer said, "but we're getting more pests all the time, including deer, groundhogs, raccoons, muskrats." A Scott County farmer said he likes song birds, game birds and fish, but some wildlife, including "fox, wolves, coyotes, groundhogs and badgers … are unsuited for the state of Iowa."
Thirty-five percent of the farmers surveyed said they are hunters and 41 percent said they fish. The hunting response was up 2 percent from 1990 and the fishing response was down 2 percent. Other wildlife activities farmers enjoy include bird watching, practiced by 25 percent in 2000 which was down from 40 percent in 1990, and photographing wildlife, practiced by 8 percent in 2000, down from 14 percent in 1990.
The Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll is funded by ISU Extension and the Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station. The purpose of the poll, conducted since 1982, is to ask farmers' views on a variety of rural and agricultural issues. Questionnaires were mailed in February to 4,977 Iowa farm operators selected at random, with 3,049 replying, yielding a 61 percent response rate.
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