Science & Outdoors
Hunting licenses fund wildlife management
The Pointer
Katie Boseo
With the nine-day Wisconsin gun deer season over, many hunters are already looking forward to next year. The sheer number of hunters in Wisconsin is astounding with total deer hunting participation reaching more than 835,000.
Twenty-three percent of those 835,000 are hunters between the ages of 12 and 25, making up a part of the college population. Even though money is a valuable commodity to college students, few mind paying the $24 fee for a gun deer license. What most students don’t know, however, is where their money goes after it leaves their wallet.
According the Wisconsin Fish and Wildlife Annual Report of 2006-07, licensing fees, combined with a state share of federal excise taxes from consumer purchases of hunting and fishing equipment and stamp sales, make up the Fish and Wildlife account. This account is the main source of funding for the fish and wildlife conservation programs the Department of Natural Resources manages in Wisconsin.
In 2006-07, the Fish and Wildlife’s account amounted for $97.4 million, with 73 percent of that money coming from hunting and fishing licenses and stamps. Of that $97.4 million, a majority goes towards the DNR’s wildlife management efforts.
With that money, the DNR conducted chronic wasting disease testing, improved access to wildlife on public and private lands, stocked wildlife for recreation and population expansion, managed and monitored wildlife populations and enhanced wildlife populations through habitat management.
Besides wildlife management and enhancement funding, hunters’ licensing fees go toward their own interests and concerns. The DNR held over 1,000 wildlife interpretive presentations with 38,000 people. They also conducted 133 outdoor skills programs with more than 11,000 participants. Youth education programs were also sustained through the Fish and Wildlife’s account.
If you want to find out more information about your investment to our natural resources through license sales, visit the DNR’s web site at: http://dnr.wi.gov.
