spectr17
12-27-2002, 04:55 PM
Dec. 26, 2002
State may face $2.5 million drop in revenue from deer licenses
By Paul Srubas, Green Bay Press Gazette, psrubas@greenbaypressgazette.com
Wisconsin deer license sales this hunting season were the lowest in eight years.
But it’s impossible to know how much of that was because of the chronic-wasting disease scare.
The state Department of Natural Resources will have realized about $28 million in revenue through deer-license sales this year. That likely will represent a loss, possibly as much as $2.5 million, from last year, according to figures obtained from the DNR, but the state’s final figures won’t be available until spring.
DNR officials know that some of this year’s decline came because of news that a small number of the state’s deer tested positive for the disease.
“This was both a most unusual season and yet very similar to dozens of past seasons,” Tom Hauge, director of the DNR Bureau of Wildlife Management, said at the close of this season.
It was unusual in that many hunters — thousands of them — waited until the last minute to buy licenses. DNR records show that nearly 70,000 licenses were sold on the last day before the season opener and 37 percent of all license sales occurred in the last week before the opener.
Some hunters reportedly took a wait-and-see attitude, in hopes of learning more about chronic wasting before committing to buying a license. The mild weather and lack of snow throughout much of the state may have persuaded some of the procrastinators not to bother.
“Hunting conditions were near average almost everywhere in the state with the only complaint being a wish for more snow cover to aid in spotting deer in the field,” Hauge said.
The resident conservation patron license, the DNR’s biggest money maker, has shown steady increases every year, including this year, when it earned more than $9 million.
But the resident gun-deer licenses, which easily have the largest number of buyers among all of the state’s deer licenses, have declined steadily since 1995.
The deer kill this year also was down. Hunters tagged 261,093 deer this year, compared with 291,563 the previous year and 442,581 in 2000, which was the best year for deer hunters since 1993.
Other statistics on this year’s hunting season:
• Brown County had the second highest number of sales of deer licenses in the state, at 26,930. Dane County was first at more than 30,000. Brown County led the way in resident deer-gun licenses at 20,051, but Dane County more than made up the difference in conservation patron and sports licenses. Counties along the state’s southern and western borders led the way in out-of-state license sales.
• Mills Fleet Farm in Appleton sold 10,247 gun deer licenses, the most of any license outlet in the state. Gander Mountain in Brookfield was second at 7,969. Brown County’s highest finisher, Mills Fleet Farm’s Green Bay West store, was third at 7,015.
• More than 3,000 hunters this year were age 80 or older. More than 59,000 were age 16 or younger.
• More than 30,000 hunters in Wisconsin’s hunt were from outside the state. Most of them came from Minnesota or Illinois, but every other state in the country except Arkansas and Massachusetts were represented, including Washington, D.C. Ninety-two came from other countries.
State may face $2.5 million drop in revenue from deer licenses
By Paul Srubas, Green Bay Press Gazette, psrubas@greenbaypressgazette.com
Wisconsin deer license sales this hunting season were the lowest in eight years.
But it’s impossible to know how much of that was because of the chronic-wasting disease scare.
The state Department of Natural Resources will have realized about $28 million in revenue through deer-license sales this year. That likely will represent a loss, possibly as much as $2.5 million, from last year, according to figures obtained from the DNR, but the state’s final figures won’t be available until spring.
DNR officials know that some of this year’s decline came because of news that a small number of the state’s deer tested positive for the disease.
“This was both a most unusual season and yet very similar to dozens of past seasons,” Tom Hauge, director of the DNR Bureau of Wildlife Management, said at the close of this season.
It was unusual in that many hunters — thousands of them — waited until the last minute to buy licenses. DNR records show that nearly 70,000 licenses were sold on the last day before the season opener and 37 percent of all license sales occurred in the last week before the opener.
Some hunters reportedly took a wait-and-see attitude, in hopes of learning more about chronic wasting before committing to buying a license. The mild weather and lack of snow throughout much of the state may have persuaded some of the procrastinators not to bother.
“Hunting conditions were near average almost everywhere in the state with the only complaint being a wish for more snow cover to aid in spotting deer in the field,” Hauge said.
The resident conservation patron license, the DNR’s biggest money maker, has shown steady increases every year, including this year, when it earned more than $9 million.
But the resident gun-deer licenses, which easily have the largest number of buyers among all of the state’s deer licenses, have declined steadily since 1995.
The deer kill this year also was down. Hunters tagged 261,093 deer this year, compared with 291,563 the previous year and 442,581 in 2000, which was the best year for deer hunters since 1993.
Other statistics on this year’s hunting season:
• Brown County had the second highest number of sales of deer licenses in the state, at 26,930. Dane County was first at more than 30,000. Brown County led the way in resident deer-gun licenses at 20,051, but Dane County more than made up the difference in conservation patron and sports licenses. Counties along the state’s southern and western borders led the way in out-of-state license sales.
• Mills Fleet Farm in Appleton sold 10,247 gun deer licenses, the most of any license outlet in the state. Gander Mountain in Brookfield was second at 7,969. Brown County’s highest finisher, Mills Fleet Farm’s Green Bay West store, was third at 7,015.
• More than 3,000 hunters this year were age 80 or older. More than 59,000 were age 16 or younger.
• More than 30,000 hunters in Wisconsin’s hunt were from outside the state. Most of them came from Minnesota or Illinois, but every other state in the country except Arkansas and Massachusetts were represented, including Washington, D.C. Ninety-two came from other countries.