The Virginia Board of Wildlife Resources voted 6-4 on Thursday to approve fee increases for hunting, fishing and trapping licenses for the first time in 14 years.
License prices were raised by the maximum amount required by law — roughly $5 to $20 depending on the package — for Virginia residents. Higher price hikes up to $50 will apply to nonresidents. They will take effect on Oct. 1.
The fee increases were proposed amid significant financial pressures for the Department of Wildlife Resources, which has seen the size of its budget lag inflation and rising costs, according to spokesperson Shelby Crouch.
The new rates for hunting, fishing and trapping licenses are expected to generate an estimated $6.9 million in revenue, according to Crouch. Boat registration and title fees will generate $550,000.
A number of other new fees and regulations relating to boating, camping, conservation and other outdoor sports and activities were also approved.
Price increases were a ‘last resort’ for the department
The last time license prices were broadly increased was in 2012. The department’s operating budget back then was approximately $55.2 million, which is comparable to about $80 million in today’s dollars, according to Crouch.
However, the department’s operating budget for fiscal year 2027 is about $65 million.
The department sought the fee increases to balance its budget and maintain the services it provides, from conservation efforts to enforcing regulations, according to Crouch.
“At the end of this year we actually had to borrow $6.9 million from the treasury to pay our bills,” said the board’s vice chair, Woody Woodall. “These fee changes will give us the opportunity to pay that money back.”
Kirby Birch, with the Virginia Hunting Dog Alliance, spoke in support of the fee increases for the sake of closing the budget gap. He said his group stands with the board’s decision, but they will be “criticizing” and “watching” its financial stewardship.
“It’s a crisis, not just in funding but in management,” Birch told the board.
The fee increases also have received support from groups such as Virginia Ducks Unlimited and the National Wild Turkey Federation.
Board member George Terwilliger, of Delaplane, said the board did not make the decision to increase fees lightly.
“I have every faith in and respect for and confidence in the management of this agency, both past and future,” Terwilliger said.
Department hopes to eventually pay for problems with federal funds
Members of the board explained that much of the department’s financial pressures have come from its failure to capture federal assistance that Virginians are already paying for.
A roughly $16 million chunk of the department’s funding comes from the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act and Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration Act, which provide matching funds for the sale of hunting and fishing licenses.
But the General Assembly has created multiple exemptions, allowing certain people to hunt, fish or trap without a license, according to Crouch. Most prominently, people do not need any sort of license to hunt on their own property, nor do their families.
There are close to 250,000 licensed hunters and 560,000 licensed anglers in Virginia, according to the department’s annual report. Those figures do not necessarily equate to the number of people hunting and fishing.
Without selling licenses to those people, the department is missing out on what could be another $16 million in federal funds each year — about a quarter of its budget.
Virginia has also seen a decline in paid, licensed hunters since the last fee increase in 2012. Back then, the state certified 304,206 licensed hunters and 601,883 licensed anglers — about 50,000 more than in each category today, according to Crouch.
Solutions are still being brainstormed by leaders at the department, according to Crouch.
One idea is to develop a way to register those who are hunting, fishing or trapping without licenses. Once they are tallied, the department would seek to have those individuals’ would-be licenses covered by the state — $3 per person, in accordance with the federally required minimum amount licenses can be sold for — and then have the federal government match those sales.
Virginians are already paying those federal programs through taxes on the sales of ammunition, fishing rods, tackle and other materials.
“What we’re doing is akin to having $19 million in the bank that we can’t touch yet because we haven’t done our best job in capturing money that Virginians have already paid,” said board member James Edmunds, of Halifax.
Edmunds — a former Republican delegate himself — said he fears patching the department’s budget problems with the license fee increases will put off the General Assembly from solving the exemption issue.
“If we had our money that every other state’s getting, we wouldn’t even have an issue. We’d lower our licenses,” Edmunds said.
Edmunds, James Maclin of Rawlings, Will Wampler of Abingdon and Marlee Dance of Prince George were the four board members who voted against the license fee increases.
The department’s executive director, Ryan Brown, said he would have been “more than happy” to not raise license fees, but he feels the department has already done everything it can to avoid doing so.
“Although I agree with Mr. Edmunds,” Brown said. “Wildlife conservation in this country has been on the backs of the hunters and anglers from the very beginning, and it’s not fair that they have to pay it all.”
New boating, camping and conservation rules also passed
Nearly every other proposal made by the department in July was passed by the board. Among them, camping permits for department-owned wildlife management areas that were previously free will now have a $10 fee.
Registration and titling fees for motorboats will be raised by $5 to offset the department’s increased costs for boating law enforcement, education, maintenance sites and administrative functions.
New safety rules for boating to comply with federal regulations were passed, despite hesitation from some board members on the grounds of how enforceable they are. Children under the age of 13 will be required to wear life jackets, and motorboats of 26 feet or less that are capable of developing 115 pounds or more of static thrust will have to be equipped with an engine cut-off switch.
Code updates and language clarifications protecting various species were all passed, except for a rule that would have barred anglers from catching snapping turtles using trotlines, juglines, limblines or set poles.
Lastly, an update to Virginia’s Stocked Trout Management Plan was endorsed by the board to be implemented by the department. The plan would see 35% fewer trout bred and released into bodies of water across the state. Before passing, its scope was shortened from a 10-year plan to a five-year plan.
