Roadtrip
New member
AP has an interesting article out this morning regarding hunting and fishing licenses. Nationwide there is a decline in sales of hunting and fishing licenses and that is causing a strain on state budgets & conservation funds. Consider these statistics: AK dropped from 345k to 319k licenses. PA (big loss) dropped from 1.3 million in 1981 to 946k last year. Oregon down 100k fishing adn 70k hunting. West Virginia is off 17%. Listed causes are video games and growth in structured activities such as sports.
So...what effect is this going to have on the price and availability of Elk Tags?
Will non residents have to bear all the price burden of these losses? What about the effect of aging baby boomers that still buy licenses but may rarely take the field? Taxes and budgets are already strained. West Virginia has some school districts offering hunter safety courses and they are targeting girls as a method to turn these numbers around. Will Elk tags become more available as less people choose to hunt? Will anti hunting groups be offering non hunting methods such as sterilization and birth control to reduce herd sizes as hunting declines?
I know it is a lot to ask...but I am curious as to other hunters opinions on this issue. Article printed today, author was Dave Gram, Associated Press. I'll post this on MM also.
Cheers,
Roadtrip
So...what effect is this going to have on the price and availability of Elk Tags?
Will non residents have to bear all the price burden of these losses? What about the effect of aging baby boomers that still buy licenses but may rarely take the field? Taxes and budgets are already strained. West Virginia has some school districts offering hunter safety courses and they are targeting girls as a method to turn these numbers around. Will Elk tags become more available as less people choose to hunt? Will anti hunting groups be offering non hunting methods such as sterilization and birth control to reduce herd sizes as hunting declines?
I know it is a lot to ask...but I am curious as to other hunters opinions on this issue. Article printed today, author was Dave Gram, Associated Press. I'll post this on MM also.
Cheers,
Roadtrip