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Below, you will find some frequently asked questions regard the new 2004-2005
license fees.
Q. What fees are increasing and exactly how much are they going up?A. License fees and some tag fees are increasing across the board. View the 2004-2005 license fees. Beginning in March of 2004, $3 of every annual license will now go toward habitat improvement projects. Also, a separate $10 stamp will be required for hunters who wish to hunt upland game.
Q. Why are you raising fees?
A. Over the years, the costs of managing wildlife, and the programs that Nevada's hunters, anglers and boaters have come to expect have increased, while the funds that support them have declined. NDOW needed to increase fees in order to continue to support programs and provide the level of service that our customers have come to expect.
The decision to increase license fees did not come lightly. But it was necessary, and the Nevada Legislature agreed by approving these increases.
True, you and I will have to dig a little deeper into our pockets each year, but, the increases will also allow the wildlife conservation, education, boating safety and other programs provided by NDOW to continue unabated. Nobody likes to see increased fees, and if any other options were available we would have taken them.
We streamlined the agency, removed a level of bureaucracy and increased efficiency to the best of our ability prior to this increase. Even with these most recent increases, the department remains one of the smallest wildlife agencies in the United States with a workforce of 220 employees for the entire state. Our public expects certain products and services from us, and in order to continue to deliver them we needed the fee increases.
Additionally, costs are going up everywhere. Since 1996, the cost of a gallon of gas has increased from about $1.19 to near $1.80 or more, electricity costs have gone up, and the costs of vehicles and other equipment are vastly higher than in 1996. All insurance costs have increased.
Other demands and responsibilities such as sage grouse conservation planning efforts and steps to monitor and educate about Chronic Wasting Disease, have been a drain on agency resources.
Q. Who needs to purchase the Upland Game Bird Stamp, and how will NDOW use these funds?A. The Upland Game stamp is required of any person 12 or older who is hunting any upland game bird except dove, turkey and crow. Funding from the $10 stamp will be accounted for separately and will be used solely for the protection and propagation of upland game birds, and for the acquisition, development and preservation of upland game bird habitats in Nevada. This will include, but is not limited to: development of range projects and developments of water sources, such as guzzlers.
Upland game bird projects must be reviewed and approved by the Board of Wildlife Commissioners. No more than 10 percent of the funding may be used to reimburse the Department for the cost of administering the documentation of the program.
Q. How will the dollars from the Habitat Conservation Fee be spent?A. The $3 Habitat Conservation Fee is incorporated into any annual hunting, trapping, fishing, or combined hunting and fishing license. This funding will be set aside to support wildlife habitat rehabilitation and restoration efforts statewide.
Revenues from this fee will go towards habitat improvement projects such as range rehabilitation, cheat grass eradication and fire rehabilitation efforts. In addition, these dollars will also be used for a number of aquatic habitat projects, including stream restoration, development of fish structures in area waters to promote natural fish production, riparian fencing in sensitive fisheries areas, minimum pool and in-stream flow agreements, water right acquisitions and reservoir restoration projects.
Q. I didn’t have any say in this. How did you get a fee increase passed?
A. Many people were involved in the process and supported the need for these increases. As always, public input was gathered at county wildlife advisory board meetings, and meetings of the Nevada Wildlife Commission. The Board of Wildlife Commissioners, many sportsmen's groups, county wildlife advisory boards, and Nevada’s legislators supported these necessary increases which allow the agency to maintain its current wildlife and boating programs and services that customers expect.
Q. Aren’t you always raising fees?
A. We take all fee increases very seriously, and we do not want to burden the sporting public.
The last major license fee increase occurred in 1996 when resident fishing licenses increased from $15.50 to $21.00. A few small, incremental increases have taken place in the past five years in order to maintain essential programs in desperate need of funding. (The fee for a trout stamp increased in 2002 in order to support the costs of repairs and renovations essential to keep our hatcheries up and running and supplying a large percentage of the fish in Nevada's waters. A $3 predator management fee was added to game application fees 2002 to fund programs needed to deal with predator issues.)
Q. If you managed my tax dollars better, you wouldn't need to raise fees, right?
A. The Department of Wildlife gets the majority of its funding from sportsmen and boaters. We get only about 3% of our $21 million budget from the state's general fund. We manage all our dollars very, very carefully, and in fact, we are one of the smallest wildlife agencies in the nation. In recent years we have streamlined many programs to reduce costs while maintaining our effectiveness.
A little more than 1/3 of NDOW’s budget comes from license fees and permits. About 1/3 comes from federal grants, such as the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act, which raises revenues through excise taxes on fishing equipment, the Pittman Robertson Act, which raises revenues through excise taxes on firearms and ammunition, and the Motor Boat Fuel Tax, which charges a tax on fuels to support boater access programs in the state. The other 1/3 of NDOW’s budget comes from grants, gifts and other donations.
Q. Why don’t you stop developing new programs and hiring more employees, instead of increasing fees?
A. The new fee increases will cover current programs at current staffing levels. No new programs, positions, or staff raises were proposed. We manage wildlife on 110,000 square miles of land in Nevada with one of the smallest wildlife agencies in the nation.
Q. What services am I paying for by purchasing a hunting license?
A. We carefully manage Nevada’s wildlife resources for quality hunting. Your fees go towards the basic functions that allow this agency to continue operating - like keeping the lights on, fueling the vehicles that travel across the state to implement wildlife programs, and the support staff to keep it all running. Hunting license dollars also go towards programs that allow our biologists to survey Nevada's wildlife populations - an essential step in evaluating habitat and population numbers that ultimately affect NDOW recommendations to the Nevada Wildlife Commission, as well as plans and partnerships created to help support those wildlife populations.
Your fees are also going towards the increased services that, over the years, the public has demanded and found very valuable - like the development of online licensing, and information developments like our web site, hunter information sheets and other wildlife publications that provide you with valuable and useful information. Additionally, a portion of the new fee will be dedicated to habitat programs that support a variety of Nevada's wildlife populations.
By using these fees for our basic operations, we are able to take advantage, and free up federal monies, in the form of grants which allow us to maintain, improve or expand big and small game habitats and many more programs that dedicated biologists implement to monitor and sustain healthy wildlife populations in this state.
Q. What services am I paying for by purchasing a fishing license and stamps?
A. By stocking area waters, our hatchery program provides a huge percentage of all the fishing opportunities in Nevada. Our fisheries biologists are constantly monitoring game fish and the status of all our waters in the state, and providing that information to the public. Without monitoring, stocking, enforcement, and the biology behind fishing, we would have fewer good fishing opportunities in Nevada.
Q. Why should I continue to purchase a license, for my family or myself, after these fee increases?A. Recreational hunting and fishing remain a great value in entertainment in the state. Besides the value of the sport itself, few activities bring families and generations together like hunting and fishing. Plus, by buying a license, you support wildlife in the state.
The outdoor experiences of fishing, boating, hunting or wildlife viewing are invaluable. With its vast expanses of public lands and open space, Nevada offers quality outdoor experiences that are unique from those found in any other state. The bonds and memories created between friends and families while participating in these activities are priceless.
Experience Nevada's wildlife. It's worth it!
