Private Sector

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to a collection of information unless it
OMB
displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0579-XXXX. The time required to complete this information collection is
Approved
estimated to average 45 minutes per response, including the time to review instructions, search existing data resources, gather the data needed, and complete and review the
0579-XXXX
information collected. Send comments regarding this burden statement or any other aspect of this information collection, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to
EXP: XX/202X
APHIS.PRA@usda.gov.

[DATE]
Dear [RECIPIENT NAME],
We are writing you to request your help with a survey study on predators and predator damage management in
your state. You are among a select group of livestock producers chosen to participate in our survey study, which
largely concerns predator damage management assistance provided to you by USDA/APHIS/Wildlife Services. To
evaluate the success of the methods and tools used, and the program, we developed this survey study to
understand the perspectives and opinions of individuals like yourself who received these services.
To participate in this research, we ask that you please fill out an online questionnaire. The questionnaire should
take about 45 minutes to complete. You must be 18 years or older to participate.
To complete the questionnaire, please go to the website: [SHORTENED SURVEY LINK]
To access the questionnaire, please enter the survey website address in your web browser (for example, Internet
Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Chrome) exactly as it is spelled out above. To do this, you can type the survey link
in the web address bar located in the upper left corner of your browser screen. Please note that you CANNOT get
to the survey by typing the survey link in a search engine such as Google or Yahoo. Detailed instructions are
printed on the back of this letter.
Once you have gotten to the website that hosts our questionnaire, you can begin taking the questionnaire
by entering the following code in all caps when prompted: [UNIQUE CODE]
This code must be entered exactly as provided above. Most importantly, this code is unique and should
only be used by you to access and complete the questionnaire. If the code is shared with someone else, it
will give them access to your responses. If you have trouble accessing the online questionnaire, please send
an e-mail to: HDsurveys@usda.gov
Your participation is voluntary, and you may skip any question you do not wish to answer or withdraw at any time;
completing the survey indicates your consent to participate. If you are unable to complete the online
questionnaire, we will mail you a paper copy that can be returned via USPS.
We will never reveal your identity or any collected information that could be used to identify you. When we report
or share the data with others, we will combine the data from everyone who participated in the survey study. Your
data will be kept confidential, and any files that link your questionnaire answers to your name and address will be
stored separately from the study data in a secure location accessible only to our research team on our network
server. While there are no direct benefits to you, the information you provide us is critically important for
understanding the viability of using methods to mitigate predator damage to livestock.
If you have any questions about the study, you may reach out to the following researchers:
Hailey Ellis
Social Scientist
USDA/APHIS/Wildlife Services
Phone: (970) 266-6148
Email: hailey.e.ellis@usda.gov
Sincerely,

Keith Carlisle
Supervisory Social Scientist
USDA/APHIS/Wildlife Services
Phone: (970) 266-6366
Email: keith.m.carlisle@usda.gov

Hailey Ellis & Keith Carlisle
Type this into the address bar → [SHORTENED SURVEY LINK]
Enter this code → [UNIQUE CODE]
To access the online questionnaire
1. Type the address printed above into your web browser

Type address here
exactly as provided

2. When you get to the survey homepage enter the code printed above in the box at the bottom of the
page

Type code here exactly as
printed