It wasn’t many years ago that state and federal wildlife agencies thought they might need to find additional methods besides traditional hunting and fishing license sales and a federal excise tax to fund their programs.
Since its inception in 1937, the program has generated $14 billion for conservation from hunters and anglers and provided more than $700 million each year through the sale of hunting and fishing equipment to support habitat conservation and outdoor recreation.
By law, money spent on state hunting and fishing licenses or cash generated by the excise tax on equipment can’t be spent on any other program. No state legislature or Congress has managed to raid funds for other purposes since its inception, according to the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.
By the numbers: Hunting and fishing in Utah
192,871 » Number of hunters
$549.5 million » Retail sales to hunters
12,471 » Number of jobs created by hunting sales
$62.4 million » State and local sales tax generated by hunters
413,568 » Licensed anglers
$489.7 million » Retail sales generated by anglers
7,208 » Jobs created by fishing industry
$49.7 million » State and local sales tax generated by anglers
Salt Lake Tribune
