Planning for the Future of Conservation Law Enforcement: A Mixed-Methods Analysis

Abstract

Effective communication with stakeholders is critical for natural resource management and state conservation law enforcement (CLE) personnel often serve as the link between the public and management agencies. But as the US population becomes increasingly diverse and urbanized, a broader constituent base creates challenges for the mission of these agencies, as the constituency they serve continues to broaden and evolve. Therefore, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) created a relevancy roadmap to help fish and wildlife agencies adapt to these societal shifts. This roadmap illustrates several barriers to engaging and serving broader constituencies for CLE agencies, including recruitment, outreach, funding, and adaptation. To determine potential disconnections between CLE officers and agency leadership with implementing the roadmaps strategies, we used a mixed-methods data collection combining a national survey of CLE officers with interviews of CLE agency leadership. Our study found that fostering strong partnerships with community organizations, focusing less on traditional backgrounds when recruiting, implementing internship or apprentice programs, and creating outreach opportunities that target different nature- based user groups were all effective strategies to engage with a broader constituency. While there were areas in which disconnects between agency leadership and field staff existed; continued efforts to expand the reach of CLE services, and a concerted effort to encourage collaboration from all levels of staff, will be crucial to ensure the relevancy and effectiveness of CLE agencies going forward.