The original hunting license fee increase packaged proposed by the Delaware Division of Fish & Wildlife was not approved by the Advisory Council on Wildlife & Freshwater Fish at tonight’s meeting.
As a member of the Advisory Council, I considered public feedback before voting. Some of the public concerns included:
- the amount of the proposed increases,
- the legality of the new fee authority granted by the 147th General Assembly in section 93 of the House Bill 425 Epilogue,
- and the value received in return for the proposed increases.
Hunters in attendance at tonight’s meeting and at the public workshops held by the Division of Fish & Wildlife last week expressed the need to see obvious return on their existing license fee investments through things like Sunday hunting, expanded hunting opportunities, additional state hunting lands, and enhanced hunting habitat.
Additionally, some hunters and conservation organizations expressed conditional support of hunting license fee increases. Conditions included:
- implementing cost sharing measures so that non-hunting users of wildlife areas pay access/use fees
- using increased revenue to improve wildlife habitat and biodiversity
- continuing opportunities for young hunters
- not increasing fees for youth hunters
- using a portion of funds to implement the State Deer Management Plan
- using a portion of funds for improved hunter access
- securing additional funding from the state’s general funds and other sustainable sources
As a result of these issues, I moved to table the vote until such a time that the fee raising authority has been proven legal and when hunters can begin to see value, such as legislative commitment to creating wildlife area fees for non-hunters and repealing the Sunday hunting ban. The motion failed with a 5-4 vote.
The Council then voted on the original fee proposal. The majority of council members voted against the fee increase, and the proposal failed.
As a personal note, I believe many hunters (myself included) are not against reasonable fee increases. In fact, I even said so in my News Journal column from December 4, 2014. However, we just want to see some positive movement toward real-world issues that affect Delaware hunters. When the hunting community, conservation groups, hunters’ rights organizations, the Division of Fish and Wildlife, and Delaware legislators begin to work as one to solve the Division’s funding problems, I believe attitudes toward fee increases will change.