Thursday, July 15, 2010
Bill Cochran's Outdoors: What's fair about buying a license to hunt your own land?
Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.
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Randy Smith wants to know what is fair about a private landowner having to buy a hunting license to hunt his own property; or a fishing license to fish his own pond.
His question came following my June 3 column that addressed a decline in hunting license sales in Virginia and most other states.
While exploring ways to stimulate license sales, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries discovered that nearly 46 percent of hunters who had failed to renew their licenses hadn’t given up on hunting. They simply where hunting on private land where in many situations a license isn’t required.
DGIF officials have instigated an active license renewal campaign and are in the early stages of discussing ways of mandating additional license sales among sportsmen who hunt on private land.
Smith especially was drawn to my statement: “Tightening up the loophole that allows private land hunters to escape buying a license would require legislation, and some hunters may not like the idea of losing their free ride.”
What free ride?
“I own land in Virginia and hunt it regularly,” he said. “I also pay taxes, maintain property fences, fertilize and harvest hay crops and here lately cut the grass along the highway boarding my property.
“My question is: what is fair here for the landowner? You see, I have already put a lot into the land; and will I need to buy a fishing license to catch supper from the pond?”
Smith isn’t one of the people who has disappeared from the license buying list.
“I buy a state hunting license every year,” he said. “Two reasons: I appreciate what the DGIF does and want to pay my part, and I like the donation I can make to Hunters for the Hungry.”
But Smith has raised an interesting question. What’s fair about a landowner buying a hunting or fishing license? What does the DGIF do to merit that sportsman’s financial support?
I ask Bob Duncan that. He is the executive director of the DGIF. His reply:
“For more than 75 years, hunting licenses have helped to pay for managing all of Virginia’s wildlife as well as restoring and protecting valuable habitat. All Virginians benefit from the work of DGIF, but not everyone contributes dollars to that work.
“Hunting licenses are the primary funding source for our agency. When a hunter or landowner or anyone purchases a hunting license they are investing those dollars in conservation for the benefit of all Virginians and future generations.
“In the North American Model of Wildlife Management--the most successful wildlife management method in the world--wildlife belongs to all the citizens and are held in public trust. As the state wildlife agency, the DGIF is charged with being stewards of Virginia’s wildlife resources, a pretty tall order.”
Duncan had high praise for Smith, and people like him who manage their land to benefit wildlife, yet recognize the value of purchasing licenses to fund the DGIF.
“As a landowner myself, I understand the sacrifices that are required to be a good steward of our wildlife and natural resources,” Duncan said.
“I’d also like to commend Randy for his support of Hunters for the Hungry, a program very near to our hearts here at DGIF. Sharing the bounty is a cornerstone of ethical hunting and in recent tough times there are families in need in Virginia who rely on this program as a source of much needed protein in their diets.”
