West Virginia Wildlife from Eyewitness News

Hunting / Fishing license down

Lagging license sales could hurt DNR programs.

April 30, 2008
Reporter: Patrick McMurtry
Videographer: Brad Rice

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With all the people out in the woods trying to bag a gobbler, it might surprise you to know that the number of people buying hunting licenses in west virginia has been declining for some time.

Steve Brown/DNR Biologist says:
"Sales over the last decade are down and that's a concern on a number of levels. Hunting license sales are down, fishing license sales are down. We're not alone on that, it's a national trend, not only for hunting and fishing, but for outdoor recreation in general."

Outdoor recreation and tourism are the state's biggest attraction. Millions of dollars are pumped into west virginia from poca to the panhandles.

Steve Brown/DNR Biologist says:
"All of that, on an annual basis, is somehow around $900 million a year to the state's economy. That's about 10,000 jobs a year that are sustained by wildlife recreation. That's a big industry, people would be falling all over themselves to attract an industry that had that many jobs."

That economic impact is also felt by the dnr. As sales go down, so does the amount of money the dnr has to spend on programs.

Steve Brown/DNR Biologist says:
"If you're a hunter or a angler and depend on the programs the DNR puts out there, it means there's less revenue to do management and research, aquisition of habitat and recreational lands."

For west virginia wildlife, i'm patrick mcmurtry, eyewitness news.

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W. Va. DNR

MORE WILDLIFE NEWS

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Hunting Report updated every week in season.

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