A Hunter's Role in Wildlife Conservation
In the past, unregulated hunting reduced several wildlife species to critical levels. Some, like the passenger pigeon, never recovered, while others like bison and white-tailed deer have rebounded to healthy and sustainable levels through carefully regulated management of both the animals and their habitats.
Former actions by hunters, trappers, ranchers and wildlife agencies also had significant impacts on native predators like wolves and mountain lions. Today, humans are the only remaining predator for species like deer in many areas where reintroducing natural predators is not feasible given the proximity to people.
Regulated hunting is a valuable management tool for maintaining a healthy balance between wildlife populations and their habitats.
Regulated hunting has never led to threatened or endangered wildlife populations because the goal of regulating harvest limits is to remove surplus animals, leaving numbers high enough that the remaining animals can reproduce and continue to be a renewable resource for all.
Hunter efforts have recovered elk, deer, turkeys, pronghorn, waterfowl and many other game and nongame species in North America. And here is how…
Hunting Licenses and Tags
Your purchase of hunting licenses, tags and stamps contributes significantly to habitat conservation efforts provides funding for scientific wildlife research, and generates more than $1.6 billion a year for conservation programs. In Arizona, the sale of licenses and tags comprises 35% of the Arizona Game and Fish Department's budget.
Did you know that for every dollar spent on Federal Duck Stamps, 98 cents go directly to purchase vital waterfowl habitat for protection in the National Wildlife Refuge System? Thanks to hunters, wetlands preserved or restored by these monies now support more than 40 million ducks!
Information
Hunters also play an important role by providing information from the field that wildlife managers need. Through participation in formal or informal surveys, contributing animal parts (like bird wings or teeth) to state and national surveys, submitting tissue samples for disease testing, and even reporting suspicious or poaching activities to law enforcement, hunters provide observations and data that help inform wildlife management and conservation locally and across the country.
Excise Taxes
Excise taxes collected from hunters and anglers through the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson acts) benefit all who enjoy outdoor recreation.
These funds can only be used by state wildlife agencies for a primary wildlife purpose, such as purchasing public land, improving essential habitat and creating additional outdoor recreation opportunities that also benefit hikers and bikers, photographers and birders, canoeists and campers.
No other group contributes more to conservation!