Elk NetworkThe Numbers Prove It: Hunting Is Conservation

General | April 23, 2019

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation has long maintained that Hunting Is Conservation. How does that work? How can such a claim be made? The numbers bear it out.

According to the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation, hunters supported America’s system of conservation funding to the tune of $1.7 billion in 2018. They spent $872 million on hunting licenses while an 11 percent excise tax on hunting and recreational shooting-related guns and ammunition generated $797 million dollars. Those funds are doled out to state wildlife agencies that manage wildlife populations as well as other conservation projects from coast-to-coast.

Additionally, sportsmen and women who fish paid $724 million for fishing licenses plus excise taxes on fishing and boating-related activity generated an additional $632 million.

Looking at the bigger picture, sportsmen and women generated $62.1 billion dollars for conservation since 1939. That’s 60 percent of the funding state wildlife agencies receive to manage wildlife.

(Photo source: Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation)

(Graphic source: Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation)