Wisconsin’s wildlife management account will start the next two-year budget period nearly $16 million in the red thanks largely to dwindling hunting license sales, putting projects from fish stocking to habitat restoration in doubt, state Department of Natural Resources officials warned Wednesday.
The department places money from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses along with revenue from timber sales and tribal gaming payments into what’s known as the fish and wildlife account. The department uses the money for a host of fish and wildlife management programs, including stocking game fish, restoring habitats, wardens, monitoring chronic wasting disease and paying farmers’ wolf depredation claims.
But a combination of fewer licenses sold at relatively low prices and rising inflation has hurt the account, department budget analysts told the agency’s board.
“The long-term trend is fewer licenses, fewer hunters and less revenue coming in and it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better,” the board’s chairman, Bill Smith, said. “You really question how we’re going to operate in the future without significant changes in our funding strategies.”