Since wildlife is a renewable resource with a surplus, hunters help control wildlife populations at a healthy balance for the habitat. Regulated hunting has never led to threatened or endangered wildlife populations.

Hunters play an important role by providing some of the information from the field that wildlife managers need.

Funding from hunting licenses has helped many game and non-game species recover from dwindling populations. Game species are animals that are allowed to be hunted, and non-game species are animals that are not allowed to be hunted.

Through a 10% to 12% excise tax on hunting, shooting, and angling sports equipment, hunters and anglers have generated more than $10 billion toward wildlife conservation since 1937.

Hunters and Wildlife Conservation

Hunters spend more time, money, and effort on wildlife conservation than any other group in society. In addition to participating in the harvest of surplus animals, hunters help sustain game populations by:

• Helping fund wildlife management through license fees
• Funding through the Pittman-Robertson Act
• Providing samples from harvested animals
• Stopping at hunter check stations
• Participating in surveys
• Filling out questionnaires