1-1 Appendix 1 Responses to survey questions administered to ...

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• Lack of personnel or too many reservoirs in each district. Management biologists have too many lakes to sample to make impacts on all waterbodies. • I think the greatest impediment is the large number of water bodies in our districts. Obviously, with at least 10 reservoirs per district, it is very difficult to apply the proper amount of effort. If we spent all our time on one reservoir, we would lose touch with the others and thus not provide current data that may be asked of us by constituents. • Limited time to gather appropriate information when already charged with a broad range of responsibilities and priorities. • The greatest impediment is the lack of resources to do the job. Our budget gets cut every year, salary equity is falling behind national averages making it more difficult to attract/retain the most talented individuals, equipment needs go unmet, etc. • Low manpower / budget - weakness • The primary impediment to the implementation of critical scientific information remains monetary. More often than not, the failure of the department to successfully pursue a course of action suggested by new scientific information is due to the lack of sufficient financial resources. • I believe two chief impediments exist to hamper our application of scientific information: 1) political pressure to from special interest groups that often override science-based decisions, and 2) the limited staff, time, and resources to allocate to the needed effort to conduct surveys that collect scientifically sound samples. I think our greatest strength lies in our quality staff and their willingness to be open to improvements in our data collection strategies and methodologies. • Impede: Over–reliance on social and political concerns when making resource management decisions. • Greatest impediment is political agendas, which supercede any scientific data • Weaknesses – Political motives always supersede sound biological data. • The greatest impediment to a good scientific approach is the meddling of often well-meaning anglers who just want their way with a particular fishery. • Impediment – sometimes the best management practice is blocked by political reasons. • Impediment = Sometimes political or sociological factors outweigh scientific information. • Politics, plain and simple. When decisions are left in the hands of agency personnel I believe we do a tremendous job. However, when issues become political management usually suffers. Fortunately, this is a rare occurrence in Texas. • Our greatest impediment is the pervasive notion that we can manage our resources top predator down instead of looking at the basic ecology of our systems and relating our resource data bottom up to sport fish management. • Impediment=Single species(Florida largemouth bass) focus by Division Director making him not as open to research and management of other species. • Impediment: Administrators do not recognize that unless data come from a study designed to answer a specific question, data collected are often inadequate to 2-26
answer the question at hand. Inappropriate use of data is likely a function of the following (a) reactive nature of the agency, (b) unquantifiable objectives, and (c) politics. • Perhaps the greatest impediment is a pervasive and longstanding habit of establishing objectives that are not measurable (i.e., abstract rather than concrete). There seems to be a general lack of belief in science as an important basis for decisions; intuition and decisiveness are highly valued. This culture places importance on rapid reaction to “unforeseen problems of the moment”… in other words, there is no time for science to work. The perceived success of this approach, reinforces the belief that science is not needed. • The biggest impediment is pressure from influential organizations or members of the public, as well as top-down directives from within the division. . . Most notably the often stated need for additional hatcheries for the express purpose of increasing Florida largemouth bass production, while other species are largely ignored. • Weakness: TPWD prefers to produce “good news” information and may avoid realities that are not sufficiently positive. INLAND NON-ADMINISTRATIVE—QUESTION 2 RESPONDENTS: 36 What is the greatest strength/weakness in standardized assessment procedures? • Strength: TPWD collects vast amounts of standardized information on important sport species and, in most cases, attempts to fine-tune the quality of that data as needed. • The greatest strength is that the procedures are thoroughly documented, are accepted by our staff as appropriate (ensuring they are followed), and are open for revision when a need is identified. • The greatest strength in our standardized assessment program is consistent quality data to help us follow statewide trends in sport fish populations. • Sampling procedures and protocol are TPWD’s greatest strength. • I think the greatest strength is the standardization. There is enough flexibility to make changes and study specific problems and still monitor our sportfish populations in the reservoirs we are responsible for. • Again, their greatest strength is the flexibility to allocate effort to address local issues. • The greatest strength is that we have greater flexibility to tailor assessment surveys to address specific objectives. • The greatest strength is in consistency and defensibility of our decision-making. • Strength: Improves efficiency • Greatest strength is that they are standardized and consistent over time. • Strength – An obvious strength of standardized procedures is that if procedures are truly standardized, data are comparable. Additionally, if standard procedures are developed and evaluated to meet a specific quantifiable objective, they can 2-27
Page 1 and 2: Appendix 1 Responses to survey ques
Page 3 and 4: 10. Procedures for standardized sam
Page 5 and 6: 18. Data acquisition and analysis a
Page 7 and 8: 26. Employees are encouraged to adv
Page 9 and 10: Appendix 2 Responses to open-ended
Page 11 and 12: • Weakness is the random sample d
Page 13 and 14: • Personnel issues are my greates
Page 15 and 16: • Our greatest strength is having
Page 17 and 18: • Funding - money spent on non-es
Page 19 and 20: • The greatest strength of the st
Page 21 and 22: • Freshwater inflows. • The eve
Page 23 and 24: 2) The jury is still out on the eff
Page 25 and 26: to address critical issues in a pro
Page 27 and 28: INLAND ADMINISTRATION--QUESTION 2 R
Page 29 and 30: • Lack of water - since fisheries
Page 31 and 32: in our sampling approaches and to f
Page 33: the HOH has also resulted in very l
Page 37 and 38: • Weakness: TPWD has preferred to
Page 39 and 40: used for any specific purpose. The
Page 41 and 42: • Water allocation for sports fis
Page 43 and 44: • I believe we are in pretty good
Page 45: fishing/coastal fisheries. Notice h

1-1 Appendix 1 Responses to survey questions administered to ...

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