By Christopher Spatz

In their October 2018 Rewilding Earth article on Wildlife Governance Reform, Kirk Robinson and Dave Parsons note that funding deficits for state wildlife programs from a decline in hunting and fishing revenues – these programs’ primary funding source — have been met with retrenchment. Rather than creating funding from the much larger constituency of non-consumptive wildlife interests, state wildlife agencies are trying to create new opportunities for hunting and fishing recruitment. The agencies continue to deny those wildlife interests a voice in state wildlife management. It’s a scenario that has played out largely unchanged for decades, as hunting and fishing popularity has been cyclical, while few substantive supplemental, non-game funding sources have been created even when the hand-wringing over wildlife funding deficits resumes.

Since the Outdoor Recreation Industry lobby (Patagonia, Black Diamond, REI, et al.), successfully fought off the 2000…