Two Truths And A Lie: National Hunting and Fishing Day

Every fourth Saturday in September, millions of Americans go to the field or head onto the water to partake in National Hunting and Fishing Day.

This holiday first emerged in 1972 after President Richard Nixon issued the inaugural proclamation namesake honoring hook and bullet activities that equally bolster conservation and the spirit of sportsmen and women.

To learn about this holiday’s importance, let’s play the party game/icebreaker “Two Truths and a Lie.” 

A. Fishing and hunting support the bulk of conservation funding in the U.S.

B. The Biden-Harris administration is friendly to hunters and anglers. 

C. Hook and bullet activities contribute to the economy.

A. Truth! Fishing and hunting support the bulk of conservation funding in the U.S.

Since 1937, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Programs have collectively raised over $71 billion for habitat restoration, wildlife conservation, hunter education, and public target shooting ranges to funnel back to all 50 states. Generally speaking, hunting and shooting sports activities have pumped $27.4 billion back to conservation since 1937, while fishing has returned $8 billion since 1950. Excise taxes on firearms, licenses, fishing tackle, boating fuel and equipment are collected under the Pittman-Robertson (PR) and Dingell-Johnson (DJ) Acts, respectively, into a “user pay—public benefit” system. The nonpartisan Tax Foundation cited this user pay model’s success as evidence of a “good excise tax.” 

The NC State College of Natural Resources reports PR and DJ monies support 60-80% of funding for all 50 state wildlife agencies. PR, or Wildlife Restoration, funds are disbursed to states based on territory and number of hunting licenses sold. DJ, or Sport Fish Restoration, funds are disbursed to the states along these lines: “40 percent of the state’s size in square miles and 60 percent on the number of fishing licenses sold.” 

In Fiscal Year 2024, the USFWS Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program disbursed $1.3 billion to all 50 state wildlife agencies to boost wildlife and outdoor access. Therefore, it’s no surprise the majority of non-hunting sport shooters and gun owners—86%—support the Wildlife Restoration Program, for instance. 

B. Lie! Although the Biden-Harris administration has invoked the contributions of anglers and hunters,  many of their regulations paradoxically have restricted public land and water access to millions of outdoor recreationists.

A proposed Commerce Department rule wants to lower the vessel speed for boats measuring 35 to 65 feet in length down to 11.5 miles per hour. This could potentially displace 63,000 recreational vessels from Massachusetts to Florida for upwards of six months. Over 340,000 fishing and boating industry jobs and $84 billion in economic activity would be at risk, as well. The Biden-Harris administration claims this measure will protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from vessel strikes. Nevertheless, the fishing industry worries these closures will create no-go zones in offshore waters and stop trips altogether.

The Department of Interior’s Alaska Subsistence Board closed over 60 million public land acres to hunting opportunities for non-locals. The USFWS conditioned new national wildlife refuge (NWR) openings on future lead tackle and bullet bans—a move interpreted as pricing out consumers from these conventional activities. A Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rule to promote “conservation leases” putting conservation on equal footing with multiple uses (timber, grazing, fishing, hunting) is actually preservationist since it’ll allow preservationist groups like the Sierra Club, for instance, to purchase these leases for non-uses that often exclude outdoor recreationists from access. The U.S. Forest Service (USFS), a subsidiary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is expected to enact a rule to permanently shutter 226,000 forest land acres in Colorado to target shooting opportunities.

C. Truth! Per the most available Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) data, the outdoor recreation economy—including fishing and hunting—comprises 2.2% of the gross domestic product (GDP)—or $563.7 billion. 

The most recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report assessing fishing, hunting, and wildlife-associated recreation—the 2022 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation (FHWAR)—said 54.4 million Americans went fishing and hunted and pumped back $145 billion into the U.S. economy. 

At a macro level, the fishing and hunting industries support livelihoods and boost our economy.Hunting sustained 540,000 indirect and direct jobs, resulting in $33.5 billion in wages as of 2022. A 2020 Sportsmen’s Alliance report found hunting and shooting sports pumped back $149 billion to the U.S. economy, supported nearly 970,000 jobs and  $45 billion in wages and income. The most available data from the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) suggests recreational fishing pumped back  $148 billion into the economy and supported 945,500 jobs as of 2023.

Bottom line: 

Fishing and hunting activities are not only integral to economic development, but also to conservation efforts. Our society benefits from having access to public lands and public waters. True conservation practices allow this sector to flourish.

There are many innumerable health benefits associated with time outdoors. Being on or by the water is shown to improve well-being, just as immersion in green spaces is a boon to mental health.

To learn more about true conservation, go here.