Faced with tighter budgets on the horizon for years, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife is looking for new ways to finance itself.
Sport and commercial license fee increases are under consideration, and, at a minimum, making permanent the temporary 10 percent surcharge due to expire in June.
Joe Stohr, department deputy director, told the Vancouver Wildlife League his agency likely is facing $10 million to $20 million in state general fund reductions and about a $10 million shortfall in the wildlife account.
The wildlife account comes from license fees.
This biennium, the department cut 10 percent of its staff positions and most employees have mandatory 10-day furloughs.
All this comes despite the $6 million from the surcharge.
Education, prisons and health care are the big three of Washington’s budget, Stohr said. Natural resource agencies simply are not a high priority.
“This only gets worse over the next six to eight years,’’ he said.
So here are a few of the ideas the department is kicking around around as potential revenue sources:
• Increasing the fee for personalized license plates.
• Moving the money paid for saltwater fishing and shellfish licenses from the general fund to the wildlife fund.
• Increasing commercial fishing license fees.
• Increasing the vehicle use permit fee so kayakers, canoeists, birdwatchers and other who do not buy fishing or hunting licenses help pay their share of the costs of state wildlife areas, boat ramps and shoreline access areas.
• Charging higher fees for hunting species that require extensive management, like Canada geese in Southwest Washington, snow geese, and bandtail pigeons.
• Charging for hydraulic permits, which cost $5.5 million for the department to process, but are issued without cost to the recipient.
Changes to consider
This probably will make me as popular as a fat man at a disco, but I’ve always felt fishing licenses are priced way too cheaply.
Let’s see, $11 to see a two-hour movie compared to $24 for a year of freshwater fishing.
It seems $50 is a fair starting price for an annual fishing license. Youth continue to fish for free and seniors keep their deep discount.
I’d also increase the basic deer or elk license up to $50, and the small game (bird) license up to $50.
Those are smaller increases than the jump anglers would face, but wildlife management in this state is relatively inexpensive, at least compared to fish management with umpteen Endangered Species Act-listed species.
Oregon’s non-resident annual fishing license is $106.25, so I would increase Washington’s to match.
But here’s what I want in return for sportsmen stepping up and paying more for the Department of Fish and Wildlife: An agency that recognizes who butters its bread and that caters more to consumptive users.
Sportsmen don’t just finance state fish and wildlife agencies with license fees, we pay federal excise taxes on fishing gear, firearms and ammuntion that get distributed back to the state.
A fish and wildlife department financed largely on the dollars of sportsmen is fine with me, just so long as state government recognizes it and prioritizes the services appropriately.
Allen Thomas covers hunting, fishing, hiking, camping and other outdoor topics for The Columbian. He can be reached by calling 360-735-4555, by e-mail at al.thomas@columbian.com or by writing to P.O. Box 180, Vancouver, 98666.s
