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Know the facts about economic impact of hunting, fishing
By Babe Winkelman
When making the case for more and better natural-resources management, there are many arguments from which to choose. Quality of life. Public and environmental health. Better hunting and fishing. A way to nurture our storied pastimes for now and into the future.
The list goes on and on, including another important factoid: Hunters and anglers are flat-out economic powerhouses.
Although I'm apprehensive in defining the importance of hunting and fishing and a healthy environment in purely economic terms (the outdoors, after all, is much more than dollars and cents), you can't deny the undeniable: The outdoors is big business, and the dollars we hunters and anglers spend primes the economic pump by the billions and across a diverse sector of occupations.
The outdoors trade industry does a fine job of chronicling the economic juggernaut that is hunting and fishing. Indeed, America's hunters and anglers -- a passionate lot, to be sure -- spend $76 billion annually, supporting 1.6 million jobs and generating $25 billion a year in federal, state and local taxes -- taxes that help pave roads, build schools, pay for important social programs and, lest we forget, fund in part our state and federal fish and wildlife agencies.
Few demographics, I dare say, are as influential in keeping the economy chugging along, even during these difficult and uncertain times, than outdoorsmen and women. We love our pastimes, and we're willing to pay for them, setting the stage for a windfall of collateral benefits that our policymakers seem to remember only when election season rolls around.
The next time somebody (insert politician or animal rights activist) questions your motives on why it is important to preserve our natural resources, come to the rhetorical fight with a full quiver of facts. Below are some interesting ones to help make your argument sing:
• Hunters and anglers have always been -- and will continue to be -- the largest contributors to government-funded wildlife conservation programs. Through excise taxes and license revenues, they have contributed roughly $10 billion to conservation, and annually provide more than 80 percent of the funding for most state fish and wildlife agencies.
• Thanks to fuel taxes, the Federal Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Fund now receives $570 million annually from boaters, most of which is used for coastal wetlands and fisheries conservation.
• Since 1939, hunters and shooters have paid $5.3 billion in federal excise taxes.
• Through Federal Duck Stamp purchases, hunters have generated more than $700 million, all of which goes into the National Wildlife Refuge System. The monies generated from the inception of federal duck stamp have helped purchase more than 5 million acres of land, providing the public with untold opportunities for outdoor recreation, wildlife viewing and photography.
• Over the years, federal excise taxes and state license revenue have helped bring back numerous wildlife species. For example, the wild turkey, which in 1900 numbered roughly 100,000 nationwide. Today that number is 7 million and growing.
• Question: What do American anglers spend $1.1 billion on each year? Rods and reels? Food? Lodging? Gas? Toothpaste?
Nope. The answer: bait. Recreational fishing is one of America's favorite pastimes -- outpacing even basketball, football, baseball and tennis. Anglers spend an average of 17 days on the water each year, four more days than the average American spends on vacation.
• Hunters love their dogs, and their support (in monetary terms) is more than puppy love. Indeed, hunters spend almost $500 million each year on their dogs alone.
• Each year, hunters spend more money on their activities ($23 billion) than the total revenues of fast-food behemoth McDonald's ($20 billion).
• Golf is a favorite American pastime, though it isn't as popular as fishing. Roughly 30 million Americans wet a line, compared to 24 million who golf.
• Here's the cold, hard truth: Sportsmen spend a whopping $378 million each year on ice.
Poll after poll shows Americans have a highly favorable outlook on hunting and fishing. Most Americans understand that hunting and fishing serves multiple needs -- food, recreation and conservation. Seventy-three percent of Americans approve of hunting, while only 10 percent believe that it should be illegal. Roughly 95 percent support legal fishing, with only three percent believing it should be illegal.
A sizeable majority of all sportsmen (80 percent) consider themselves "likely voters." Since lawmakers and regulators routinely make decisions that affect sportsmen and women, we hunters and anglers have political clout -- assuming we choose to exercise it wisely.
Every state makes an economic impact (revenue, taxes, and jobs) through hunting and fishing, with some states priming the pump more than others. Consider: Sportsmen have created more jobs in Texas (106,000) than Exxon-Mobil (82,000). In Florida, angling squeezes out three times more revenue ($4.4 billion) than oranges ($1.2 billion).
Babe Winkelman is a nationally-known outdoorsman who has taught people to fish and hunt for more than 25 years. Watch the award-winning "Good Fishing" and "Outdoor Secrets" television shows on Versus (formerly OLN), Fox Sports Net, WILD TV, WFN and many local networks
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“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
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