CONSERVATION CORNER
House Should Not Gut Wildlife Agency
by James L. Cummins

It is very much appreciated that the Mississippi House of Representatives recently passed a bill reversing their earlier passed bill to cut the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks. It would have reduced their general funding by $8,549,764 or 90 percent. Governor Haley Barbour's proposal is for a 5 percent reduction, which is very reasonable.

Most of the agency's funding is from park entrance fees, licenses fees, taxes on boat fuel and hunting and fishing equipment. This year, the House also proposes to spend $6,642,803 less than what the license and other fees generated last year. This prompts a question. What are these dollars that sportsmen pay being used for? You and I have already carried our load, it is time the Legislature pass a bill to allow the wildlife agency to spend these funds on fish, wildlife and parks - their intended use.

If they decide to spend all or some of these funds to pay down the debt on the failed beef processing plant, for example, they could eliminate some of the significant impact that sportsmen have on Mississippi's economy. Sportsmen in Mississippi annually pay $55.6 million in state sales, fuel and income taxes - this could pay 1,881 teachers' salaries or fund the annual education expenses of 10,488 students. Sportsmen support more jobs in Mississippi (12,258 jobs) than Ingall's Shipyard (10,000 jobs), our state’s largest private employer. Mississippi's sportsmen annually spend more than the value of the state's cotton crop ($670 million versus $406 million). And the ripple effect of Mississippi's sportsmen is $1.2 billion on our state's economy.

On the national level, 38 million sportsmen age 16 and older spent more than $70 billion dollars in 2001 - that would rank hunters and anglers #11 on the Fortune 500 if they formed a corporation.

Hunters and anglers mean jobs in the states that have made the effort to maintain their hunting and fishing opportunities. The economic impacts that sportsmen have on our economy should be a wake-up call to the House of Representatives to help fund programs that also generate much of their revenue source.

These special funds go towards not only providing good wildlife habitat, but providing places for people that can't afford their own place to fish or a place for outdoor recreation. A cut of the special funds will impact those that depend on public land for hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation. Much of their reason for hunting and fishing is simply to put food on the table.

In this budget crisis, some belt tightening is expected. However, taking park and license fees to pay for other uses is just bad fiscal policy.

James L. Cummins is Executive Director of the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation in Stoneville, Mississippi. Known as "Wildlife Mississippi," the Foundation is a non-profit, conservation organization founded to conserve, restore and enhance fish, wildlife and plant resources throughout Mississippi. Their web site is www.wildlifemiss.org.