Wildlife Damage Control Program Needs of County Extension Agents in Colorado

County extension agents in Colorado indicated that extension bulletins were the most important type of assistance needed for their clientele in the area of wildlife damage control. County extension agents indicated that pocket gophers, prairie dogs, skunks, and coyotes were the most important of 32 species requiring extension information for their clientele. Introduction Extension wildlife specialists frequently conduct wildlife damage control education programs by working directly with clientele groups or by training county extension agents and other professionals and providing them with materials that are passed along to their clientele. In order to conduct the most successful programs, extension wildlife specialists should have knowledge of the needs of professionals and their clientele. This study was conducted in Colorado to evaluate programming needs of county extension agents and their clientele is wildlife damage control The results of this study may be applicable in other states. Methods Questionnaires were mailed during September 1985 to 83 county extension agents. A second questionnaire was mailed to nonrespondents. The county agents were instructed to score each type of programming assistance in wildlife damage control and each species of concern from 0 (type of assistance or species not important) to 10 (type of assistance or species extremely important) according to their clientele’s needs. Similarities in programming needs and species were determined with Spearman’s coefficient of rank correlation. Results and Discussion Respqnses to the questionnaire were received from 70 county extension agents; 66 and 69 agents provided responses related to type of programming needs and species, respectively. The 70 agents, according to their extension titles, specialized in agriculture (34), agronomy (6), horticulture (12), livestock (8), various combinations of agriculture, agronomy, livestock and horticulture (6), entomology (1), natural resources (1), community development (1) and director (1). Most of the county agents had broad educational responsibilities with several also responsible for home economics and youth education. County extension agents rated extension bulletins as the most important type of assistance that extension specialists could provide to assist their clientele’s needs in wildlife damage control (Table 1). Agents expressed a strong desire to have the extension wildlife specialist available for telephone consultations. News releases that could be incorporated in the county agents’ weekly newspaper columns were rated higher thaw news releases sent directly to newspapers (Table 1). Communications between county agents’ microcomputers and the wildlife specialist’s microcomputer to provide the latest information on wildlife