Fishing for Big Bucks

Crouched in camouflage with duck calls or deer urine to mask themselves, hunters are bagging game, but when it comes to their impact on the state's economy, state fish and game officials wish the effect of fishing, hunting and wildlife watching were more visible.

Hunting and fishing generate big bucks for the Granite State, with 258,000 sportspeople spending $219 million in 2006 on equipment and related activities, based on the most recent report from the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service. Research by the Washington, D.C.-based Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation found the industry supports about 4,000 jobs, more than most private employers in the state. An additional 548,000 people participated in wildlifewatching activities in the state, spending $274 million, U.S. Fish and Wildlife reports.

All that money feeds an industry that, until a recent uptick in fishing licenses, was declining. The NH Fish and Game Department, which is funded mostly by license fees, has struggled in recent years to carry out its mission, which includes managing the wildlife population, overseeing 56,000 acres of conservation, maintaining public access boat ramps and rescuing injured and lost hikers. It also works with environmental groups to conserve additional land, and has spent millions doing so.

That mission is vital to NH's history, identity and future, and the tourism industry. I don't think we're at a point where the outdoor industry is going to collapse or disappear, but we're kind of in a gray area, says Wayne A. Derby, owner of Northern Land Guide Service in Bethlehem, which runs hunting, fishing, wildlife watching and other outdoor education programs. If there aren't more people going to young people and saying this is a good thing to be outdoors,' we're going to lose a lot of culture.

While most industries are bemoaning the current economy, economic downturns have historically been good for fishing and hunting. During tough economic times, license sales get a boost from people looking for affordable recreation, says Glenn Normandeau, executive director of the NH Fish and Game Department.

Normandeau came to NH Fish and Game earlier this year from the private sector and is a realist about solving the department's budgetary woes. For FY 2008, which ended June 30, the department was close to breaking even and was able to redirect $127,000 left in its search-and-rescue budget to its general fund. Still, the department ran significant deficits in recent years and Normandeau doubts more money will come his way with the state facing its own budgetary woes.

Hunters and anglers are expected to help one area of the state's economy. As the North Country tries to recover from a spate of mill closures in recent years, tourism-including hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation-is seen as a boost to the economy, says Tom Rideout, editor and publisher of the NH Outdoor Gazette, a Berlin-based monthly magazine focused on hunting, fishing, and other forms of outdoor recreation in the North Country. Rideout is among the businessmen profiting from the sector. He started his monthly magazine eight months ago and has amassed 4,000 readers and more than 12 advertisers, and he is already in the black.

Underappreciated Economic Driver
One thing guides, hunters, anglers and Fish and Game personnel agree on is this: Most people don't appreciate the effect hunting and fishing has on NH. When David Wirtes, a lawyer from Alabama, and his 12-year-old son came to fish, they hired fishing guide Curt Golder of Curt Golder's Angling Adventures, rented a car, bought gas, ate at area restaurants, shopped and stayed at a local bed and breakfast.

Guide Harry Mehos estimates his trips fill about 20 to 30 hotel rooms a season-and he is only one guide. Mehos is president of the NH Guides Association, which has about 60 members. A couple hundred guides work in the state. Mehos estimates 70 percent of his clients are tourists who visit for about a week. Those visitors, whether they stay at hotels, motels, inns or campgrounds, contribute to the more than $100 million paid in rooms and meals taxes by visitors in FY 2007.

Among those looking to attract hunters are innkeepers. Mark Beauchesne, advertising promotions coordinator for the NH Fish and Game Department, was approached by several innkeepers to find out how to cater to hunters. A lot of those folks are located in the countryside and it's a market they don't have a piece of, Beauchesne says, adding that the growth in the turkey population, and more deer and turkey sightings, means hunting is more on people's minds.
Beauchesne is working with innkeepers to educate them on what they can do to attract hunters, including providing information on area guides, maps of the area and cooler space to store game. He says hunters are not only low maintenance; they are coming to NH in November, a quiet time for the hospitality industry after the foliage season.

Last fall, a survey by the Institute for NH Studies at Plymouth State University found 8.5 percent of overnight visitors to NH from New England hunted and/or fished and 16.7 percent participated in wildlife watching while 13.6 percent of visitors from Mid-Atlantic states hunted and/or fished and 23.9 percent participated in wildlife watching.

And it's not just overnight visitors feeding the economy. Fishing tournaments during the summer on Lake Winnipesaukee draw 50 boats many weekends, Beauchesne says, who buy gas, coffee, supplies and meals. The anglers arrive at 7 a.m. and often leave by 3 p.m. It kind of goes unnoticed because they come and go, but they are a large group.

There are also people who make their living directly from the hunting and fishing industry, including many advertisers in Rideout's publication, such as gun stores, lodges and hunting and fishing gear stores. In Berlin, Jericho Motorsports' primary business is ATV and snowmobile sales, service and rentals, but customers also use the machines to go bird hunting and drag moose they've shot out of the woods, says owner Randy Cicchetto.

State Struggles
New Hampshire's Fish and Game Department's budget is about $27 million a year, of which less than half is unrestricted and allowed for any use. Most of the money comes from user fees, including hunting and fishing licenses. While the department was about $1.5 million under budget for FY 2008, that was due partly to unfilled positions and maintenance that wasn't done, Normandeau says. In the past, the department ran in the red, despite raising license fees. That forced it to take nearly $1 million from the Fish and Game Fund Reserve in FY 2006.

New Hampshire Fish and Game receives less than 0.4 percent of its budget from state tax dollars. Instead, the department funds most of its conservation work with license and permit fees, and federal funds. More federal money is available, but it frequently requires a one-to-one match and it doesn't do any good if we don't have funds to match it, Normandeau says.

And there are times when Fish and Game's conservation mission forces it to make decisions that don't benefit the department financially. For instance, this year the state reduced its available moose permits by 75 to maintain the population, a decisive chunk of change, Normandeau says, given that it costs $15 to $25 to enter the lottery, $150 for resident permit winners and $500 for nonresidents. Many more people apply than are chosen, with a resident's odds being one in 20.

The license dollars have to go a long way and it's tough, Normandeau admits, noting one of his primary goals is getting the department on solid footing. And he isn't counting on the government for help. Last spring, legislation aimed at boosting the department financially failed, including a conservation decal for canoes and kayaks that would have raised a total of $1.5 million and dedicating a portion of the rooms and meals tax for the department, which would have raised $4.6 million. He plans to work on additional proposals for the next budget cycle, but says political support will be vital.

That lack of legislative support angers hunters and fisherman. Those people are playing for free while we pay, Derby says of kayakers and canoeists escaping a user fee due to the defeated sticker proposal. The people who've been playing for free, they've got to start paying. Snowmobilers, who pay for licenses, are fighting a similar battle with people wanting to ban motorized vehicles from state trails so people can walk them for free without noise.

Our customers are the whole state in many ways and there are a small sub portion that pay the tab. It would be nice, of course, to spread that out a bit, but we will just have to see how that plays out politically, says Normandeau, acknowledging it has historically been tough for Fish and Game to get legislative support to use state general funds.

Others point to the economic benefits the state reaps from outdoors sportspeople as a reason to invest in NH Fish and Game. I can't tell you when we go hunting and fishing how many Massachusetts license plates and Connecticut license plates we see, says Andrew Zipkin, a Rochester fly fisherman who fishes both on his own and with Mehos to learn new techniques and new spots. They come, buy a two-day license, stay at a motel. [New Hampshire's] got everything. It's got the ocean. It's got rivers and streams. It's got skiing. I had the best snowmobiling of my life last season. Why wouldn't you fund Fish and Game?

Hunters and anglers aren't the only ones with gripes when it comes to the state and finances. Some hunting and fishing outfitters have stopped selling hunting and fishing licenses directly. Among them is Wolfeboro Bay Outfitters, which sold $94,000 in licenses last year, but this year no longer does as it required a full-time staff member to fill out licenses, process payments, prepare monthly reports and send the money to the state. In the end, credit card fees and staff time cost more than the $1 the store made on each license. It's nothing I wanted to get rid of, says storeowner Lee Pilkovsky. It's something I had to get rid of.

While people can still buy a license online through a computer on the counter, they can't buy it directly from the store. Normandeau recognizes the system is antiquated and is working to adjust it, but says any changes, such as an online computer system, require legislative approval. The hope for now, he says, is that stores see a benefit from the increased traffic in the store. Pilkovsky says 75 percent of that traffic came only for licenses while the remaining group would have come anyway. The outdated system is also a burden on the department. About 60 percent, or 125,000 licenses, are paper ones sent to the department from outfitters and vendors. They all need to be entered into a database by department staff.

Inspiring the Younger Generation
Errol-based hunter and guide Keith Roberge of Northern NH Guide Services first shot a gun when he was barely big enough to hold it up. He took his son hunting riding in a baby backpack. That family tradition is familiar to many sportsmen. But that is quickly changing as television, computers, video games and organized sports fill kids' time. And it has Normandeau and others worried. It's also the reason for NH Fish and Game programs like Let's Go Fishing, which offers free fishing clinics to parents and their kids, and Becoming an Outdoors Woman, which is aimed at attracting women to outdoors sports.

Fishing guide Curt Golder calls Lake Winnipesaukee his office and says he has guided people of all ages, abilities, races and nationalities. He was recently fly-fishing on the lake with Alabama lawyer Dave Wirtes and his son Joey, 12.
Wirtes, an avid fisherman, says he brought his son to NH to learn how to fly-fish the right way and to spend time together. He was not disappointed. The pair caught 30 fish in one morning, releasing all but four. Raising him in an environment of hunting and fishing, most of what he has learned is respect for the land, Wirtes says, adding that having a guide allowed Joey to catch a fish his first time out fly-fishing.

Another reason Wirtes hired Golder was for Golder's knowledge of the land, including its natural history. He's like a goodwill ambassador, Wirtes says of Golder. We talked a lot this morning about conservation, what the state is doing to limit boat traffic and the history of development on lakeside communities.

Guide Harry Mehos says his clients are increasingly bringing along kids, something he values so much he is considering offering a 10 percent discount to clients who come with kids. They are the future of the sporting world and it's all too common they are playing video games, Mehos says. We need someone to want to keep the rivers clean, to keep them stocked, to keep them accessible.

Derby of Northern Land Guide Service is concerned about changing attitudes towards hunting. In addition to guiding, he teaches natural history programs in North Country schools. He says kids' attitudes about hunting are being formed by parents who don't hunt. Some of the first words out of these kids' mouths, especially the ones whose mom and dad came from suburbia, is killing is wrong', he says. To kill for no reason is wrong, but killing is not wrong.
Hunters are also stymied by changing land patterns. Derby has seen more land posted No Trespassing.' Roberge worries that trend may grow, but hopes it won't if more hunters politely approach landowners before hunting.

In Derby's home, hunting provides 85 percent of the family's meat. In addition to its role in keeping the animal population stable, he wants kids to understand how hunting makes people aware of the environment around them.
The Take Me Fishing program has been luring in some of that younger set. Normandeau has noticed more single mothers signing up for the classes with their kids. Between 2006 and 2007, fishing licenses increased by about 6,000 based on NH Fish and Game data to approximately 148,000. Fish and Game officials hope that trend continues.