A unit of Lasting Forests
Sustained forests; sustained profits
evolving since March 30, 1999
of an Alternative Wildlife Resource Management
Review and Key Concepts - Objectives
Objectives are essential for designing wildlife management projects, for making decisions of most types. Goals are identical to objectives but there are 7 types of objectives (or goals). They are:
General
Fundamental
Success criteria
Policy or constraints
Primary
Action
Futuristic
The types need to be memorized. More change in wildlife resource management can be made by clarifying, changing, and solidifying sound objectives than any other practice.
There are 17 criteria for evaluating objectives.
Table 1. A guide for evaluating the wording and structure of written objectives.
1. It is important, worthy of specific consideration, and non-trivial.
2. It is consistent with higher level objectives (see discussion of levels later).
3. It goes beyond preventing deleterious effects.
4. There is believed to be one or more ways of achieving it at some level.
5. It attains at a level beyond presently known capabilities of use or benefit (realistic but suggesting a challenge).
6. It has no hidden objective.
7. It tends to be long-term.
8. Agreement on acceptable units of measure of attainment (at least tentative indexes) can be reached.
9. Progress toward it can be measured.
10. It expresses as a production function what to obtain or to retain.
11. It is flexible, allowing for adjustment to new directions or conditions.
12. It contains no methodology (not expressing how something will be achieved).
13. It cannot be combined with another objective on the basis of the participant.
14. It has been written for the proper audience.
15. It can be understood to at least three people's mutual satisfaction.
16. It is grammatically correct, often starting with the word "To" followed by an action or accomplishment verb (see 10).
17. It is brief.
Few people see the need for making decisions more precise. Note the difference in actions needed or proof of success that needs to be delivered to a supervisor, client, or to a court.
Table 2. Examples of type 5, primary objectives. There is no one set of objectives for wildlife managers. Objectives need to be developed for each area and each population of resource users. The more specific, the better. A representative set is shown.
1. To maximize the sightings of wild animals.
2. To minimize the energy cost of managing the habitat on area Z.
3. To minimize species losses.
4. To maximize the known number of native species.
5. To minimize the measured crop and livestock losses in profits caused by wild animals.
6. To maximize visitor-days to area Z spent in seeking wildlife for photography.
7. To maximize C, an index to citizens' knowledge of the wildlife laws, regulations, and objectives.
8. To create and maintain a system to secure the best possible scenarios and views of the future and to develop
simulations by which to test the consequences of such future states on current decisions and action programs.
Examples of increased precision:
- To maximize the numbers of species X.
- To maximize the biomass of species X harvested from the area.
- To maximize the annual average and minimize the variance in useable flesh of species X harvested from the area over a 30-year period.
Table 3. A set of type 5 potential deer herd or deer resource management objectives. It is likely that each will result in very different decisions made about actions and expenditures to achieve them. Rarely will more than 4 be selected and weighted.
1. Maximize the total harvest.
2. Maximize the harvest of males.
3. Maximize the total pounds of animals harvested.
4. Maximize the total pounds of meat harvested.
5. Maximize the total pounds of useable meat harvested.
6. Maximize the total pounds of useable meat harvested and utilized.
7. Maximize the increase in harvest.
8. Maximize the mean annual harvest.
9. Maximize the total 10-year harvest.
10. Minimize the variance among reported harvests over the past 10 years.
11. Minimize the variation index over 10 years (coefficient of variation or standard deviation)
12. Maximize the estimated net present worth.
13. Minimize the herd management cost.
14. Maximize the total hunter hours spent.
15. Minimize the time spent hunting by all hunters taking an animal.
16. Maximize the weighted reported benefits from a long diverse set as reported by a random sample of hunters.
17. Minimize law enforcement difficulty.
18. Minimize law violations.
19. Maximize the distribution of hunters.
20. Maximize the distribution of successful hunters.
21. Maximize cumulative benefits over 10 years.
22. Maximize the current estimated present net value of the annual deer herd and related hunting.
23. Maximize the rate of herd increase over 10 years.
24. Maximize the rate of herd increase over 20 years.
25. Minimize the estimated herd monetary damages to crops, gardens, rangeland, and forests.
26. Maximize the average number of trophy bucks taken each year.
27. Maximize the total number of trophy bucks taken over 20 years.
28. Maximize the median number of trophy bucks (over 8 points) taken in 10 years.
29. Maximize the modal trophy bucks taken over 20 years.
30. Minimize the proportion of male deer in the population.
31. Maximize the average diversity of the harvest over 5 years.
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Last revision July 20, 2000.