Tell Texans The Number Of Hunters And Fishermen Declining

It seems that not all the news coming out about the declining number of hunters and fishermen nationwide is bad. I reported last week that Maine was bucking the national trend of reduced numbers but someone forget to tell Texans there seems to be a lack of interest.

The Houston Chronicle is reporting that hunting and fishing license sales are extraordinarily rapid paced.

Over the five-day period Aug. 30-Sept. 3, Texans purchased a little more than 385,000 hunting and fishing licenses, pumping about $12 million into TPWD accounts used exclusively for wildlife and fisheries programs.

Aug. 31 — the day old licenses expired and the day before the start of dove hunting season in most of the state — saw more than 136,000 licenses and other documents (public hunting permits, special-use stamps, etc.) purchased.

“That’s the biggest single day (of license sales) we’ve ever had,” Newton said.

Texans spent about $4.6 million on hunting and fishing licenses that day, Newton said.

And at the peak of sales, Texans were buying almost 250 licenses every minute — more than 14,000 an hour.

What’s also interesting is that officials are estimating that they will exceed license sales from last year, which was a record year.

This past year, TPWD issued a record 3.2 million hunting and fishing licenses.

And the state seems on a road to improve those numbers this license year.

“Last year was our best year,” Newton said. “So far this year, we’re about 2 percent ahead of where we were at this time a year ago.”

Is there something going on in Texas that other states should be looking at?

Tom Remington