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Wildlife-related recreation helps our economy

by Phil Cooper/Special to the Press
| July 3, 2014 9:00 PM

There is a new radio commercial that I really like.

I have only heard it once, but I expect to hear it again as the summer progresses.

The ad is sponsored by the National Boating and Fishing Foundation, a national group which encourages people to get outdoors and enjoy the natural world.

The commercial opens with a woman asking her husband why he is getting his fishing gear out. She points out that he had told her he was planning to take their kids to do a conservation project for the day.

He proceeds to explain that hunters and anglers provide the funding that supports wildlife conservation all over the U.S., and that taking the kids fishing is a great conservation project. How right he is?

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducts a national survey to gather information about all forms of wildlife-related recreation. The survey is released every five years.

The 12th report - covering 2011 - was released late in 2012. While that is going on two years ago, many people have likely not seen the report. The full report is available online by searching "Survey of Wildlife Associated Recreation."

The survey is the definitive source of information concerning participation and purchases associated with hunting, fishing and other forms of wildlife-related recreation nationwide. The national report is released once every five years, with state-specific reports now being released on a rolling basis.

The purpose of the survey is to report the number of people who hunted, fished and watched wildlife in 2011, the extent of their participation, and the amount of money they spent.

Wildlife-related outdoor recreation increased in the period from 2006 to 2011. In 2011, more than 90 million people in the U.S. participated in some form of wildlife-related recreation.

That amounts to 38 percent of those older than 16.

Wildlife-related recreation expenditures total more than 1 percent of the nation's gross domestic product.

Another way to view that is to consider that one dollar of every $100 spent in the U.S. is spent on wildlife recreation.

A look at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game license sale database shows that many individuals buy a hunting or fishing license some years and not other years.

These occasional purchasers-participants are referred to by state wildlife agencies as "lapsed-license buyers" the year in which they do not purchase a license. (The same observation would be true in states all across the country.)

Those individuals generally view themselves as hunters or anglers, but they would not be represented in the survey results because they did not participate in the activities in 2011.

So, the number of people who infrequently participate in recreation related to wildlife is even higher than the survey shows.

Fish and Game has produced a very interesting video that is available on our website (fishandgame.idaho.gov) and on YouTube, that details the Idaho specific findings of the survey.

On our website, go to media, videos, about IDFG, and to the video named Fish and Game "By the Numbers."

I think you will be amazed by the statistics you see about the economic impacts of wildlife-related recreation on our state.

Occasional license buyers often cite a lack of information or knowledge about where to go or how to hunt or fish as a reason they did not participate.

Well, IDFG has addressed that issue very well on the agency website with our Fish Planner and Hunt Planner sections.

These provide detailed information about where to go and much more.

Even a person who has never fished can go to the site and learn enough about where to try fishing. You can get enough information quickly and easily enough to get to a lake close to home and give it a try this Independence Day weekend.

Phil Cooper is a wildlife conservation educator in Coeur d'Alene for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.