A comparative study of natural resource professionals in minority and majority groups in the southeastern United States

We compared representation, career backgrounds, recruitment, job skill requ irements, job advocacy, and opinions on natural resource careers and strate gies of majority- and minority-group natural resource professionals to impr ove minority representation in the profession. We sent a mark-sense questio nnaire to 938 majority-group and 955 minority-group natural resource profes sionals employed by the member state and federal agencies in the Southeaste rn Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. Response rate for the minorit y group was 52%, compared to 71% for the majority group. Sampling error was +/-4% at the 0.95 confidence level for both groups. Differences (P less th an or equal to 0.05) existed between groups in all of the categories of com parison. We provide several strategies for expanding cultural and ethnic di versity in the natural resources workforce.