Responsive Management, located in Virginia’s beautiful Shenandoah Valley, is an internationally recognized survey research firm specializing in natural resource and outdoor recreation issues. Our mission is to help natural resource and outdoor recreation agencies, businesses, and organizations better understand and work with their constituents, customers, and the public.  

Focusing only on natural resource and outdoor recreation issues, Responsive Management has conducted, over the past 35 years, multimodal, telephone, mail, and online surveys, as well as on-site intercepts, focus groups, public meetings, personal interviews, needs assessments, program evaluations, marketing and communication plans, and other forms of human dimensions research measuring how people relate to the natural world. Utilizing our in-house, full-service survey facilities with 75 professional interviewers, we have conducted studies in all 50 states and 15 countries worldwide, totaling more than 1,200 human dimensions projects only on natural resource and outdoor recreation issues.

Responsive Management has conducted research for every state fish and wildlife agency and every federal natural resource agency, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fishers Service, the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, and U.S. Coast Guard. Additionally, we have also provided research for all the major conservation NGOs including the Archery Trade Association, the American Sportfishing Association, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Ducks Unlimited, the Izaak Walton League of America, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the National Wildlife Federation, the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Safari Club International, the Sierra Club, Trout Unlimited, and the Wildlife Management Institute.

Other nonprofit and NGO clients include the American Museum of Natural History, the BoatUS Foundation, the National Association of Conservation Law Enforcement Chiefs, the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators, and the Ocean Conservancy. As well, Responsive Management conducts market research and product testing for numerous outdoor recreation manufacturers and industry leaders, such as Winchester Ammunition, Vista Outdoor (whose brands include Federal Premium, CamelBak, Bushnell, Primos, and more), Trijicon, Yamaha, and others.

Responsive Management also provides data collection for the nation’s top universities, including Auburn University; Boise State University; California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; Clemson University; Colorado State University; Duke University; George Mason University; Michigan State University; Mississippi State University; North Carolina State University; Oregon State University; Penn State University; Rutgers University; Stanford University; Texas Tech; University of Alaska; University of California-Davis; University of California San Diego; University of Connecticut; University of Florida; University of Hawaiʻi; University of Montana; University of New Hampshire; University of Southern California; Virginia Commonwealth University; Virginia Tech; West Virginia University; Yale University; and many more.

Our research has been upheld in U.S. Courts, used in peer-reviewed journals, and presented at major wildlife and natural resource conferences around the world. Responsive Management’s research has also been featured in many of the nation’s top media, including Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fox News, CNN, National Public Radio, and on the front pages of The Washington Post and USA Today.