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CONSERVATION CORNER
For the week of September 24, 2007
Mississippi Has Huge Economic Impact From Hunting, Fishing
by James L. Cummins

The National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation is an important tool that measures in economic and participatory terms the value that wildlife has in Americans' hearts and to the nation's economy.

“Wildlife-related recreation rejuvenates our spirit, connects us with nature and gets us outside pursuing healthy activities," said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall.

In 2006, more than 87 million Americans, or 38 percent of the United States' population age 16 and older hunted, fished or observed wildlife. They spent $120 billion that year pursuing those activities. Further broken down by category, 30 million (or 13 percent) fished and spent a total of $41 billion on their activities; 12.5 million (or 5 percent) hunted and spent a total of $23 billion; and 71 million (or 31 percent) observed wildlife and spent a total of $45 billion.

In Mississippi, hunters spent $557,565,000 (35 percent more than in 2001), anglers spent $239,223,000 (12 percent more than in 2001) and $181,759,000 (40 percent lower than in 2001) was spent by wildlife watchers in 2006. At a tax rate of 7 percent, the state's general fund received $69,000,000 in 2006. And when you consider that the Mississippi Legislature does not put one cent of general fund money into the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, that is pure profit from our state's sportsmen. If used for the use where it originated, we could educate a lot of kids about the outdoors and provide additional public opportunities for hunting, fishing and wildlife viewing.

The National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation has been conducted every 5 years since 1955 and is one of the nation's most important wildlife-related recreation databases. It is considered to be the definitive source of information concerning participation and expenditures associated with hunting, fishing and other forms of wildlife-related recreation nationwide.

The survey is conducted at the request of state fish and wildlife agencies, and is funded by grants from the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Act. A wide range of individuals and groups depend on the National Survey to analyze participation rates, as well as the economic impacts of expenditures, demographic characteristics and trends in participation and activities.

This 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, as well as previous reports, can be found at http://federalaid.fws.gov/surveys/surveys.html. The Service expects to publish the final survey in November 2007.