Syracuse.com - Voluntary outdoors habitat/access stamp sales lowest ever in state. What gives?

[HuntingNY-News]

DEC officials say the drop in sales may be connected to the poor economy, in part to the relatively recent increase in outdoors license fees and sportsmen not wanting to pay any additional money and the fact that the DEC hasn't announced the use of the money for any projects since 2007.

I knew I had forgotten something when I recently bought my hunting/fishing licenses for the coming year.

When I made the purchase, the guy at the cash register at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Fairmount didn’t ask me if I wanted to also buy a $5 state habitat/access stamp. I walked out the store without one.

I contacted the state Department of Environmental Conservation this week for an update on the voluntary stamp program and discovered last year’s purchases of the stamp was at all-time low – with not much hope for improvement this year.

The state began selling these stamps in the 2002-2003 license year following intense lobbying by Fred Neff, a Baldwinsville resident who was the former president of the Onondaga Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs.

Neff brought up the idea following a 2000 fishing trip to Montana. He noticed when he bought his license in that state, he was required to buy a stamp to help raise money to pay for habitat improvement and access-related projects in that state. He did a little research and found out that more than 30 other states did the same thing.

The DEC favored the idea and eventually a bill creating the program was approved by the state Legislature with one hitch — that it had to be voluntary. The state’s lawmakers frowned upon the stamp as as an additional tax.

When the program first kicked off, the DEC would mail everyone who bought a stamp a pin with the picture of the animal that was on the stamp this year. This year it’s a turtle. However, that was stopped after several years because of manufacturing and mailing costs (about $1.50 per pin).

Meanwhile, reminders are printed each year in the DEC hunting and fishing guides. Posters are sent out each year to licensing agents (sporting good stores, village clerks, etc.) to post and remind buyers. In addition, when buying a license, the seller is required to register the sale on the computer, which has a visual prompt to the seller concerning the stamp. Finally, the seller, whether it be a municipal clerk or a private store, receives a $1 commission for every stamp sold.

DEC officials say total stamp sale revenues to date are $372,568. Annual revenues have ranged from a high of $69,310 (2004-2005) to last year’s low of $17,015.

DEC spokesman Michael Bopp and Doug Stang, the DEC’s assistant director for Fish, Wildlife and Marine Resources, say the drop in sales may be connected to the poor economy, in part to the relatively recent increase in outdoors license fees and sportsmen not wanting to pay any additional money and the fact that the DEC hasn’t announced the use of the money for any projects since 2007.

The DEC has announced two rounds of projects since the program started: once in 2004-2005; and again in 2006-2007.

One project in particular that raised the ire of sportsmen was the approval of $10,000 back in 2007 of an Audubon Society-backed “Echo Cruise in New York City Harbor,” which essentially was a bird watching tour for intercity kids. The majority of folks buying the stamp were hunters, fishermen and trappers and they weren’t happy with that.

Stang said apart from the bird-watching venture, the fund has concentrated on projects such as angler parking lots, cartop boat launches, a fishing access pier and grassland habitat management in an area for upland birds. The reason that no projects were announced since 2007 is that some of the earlier projects are still not finished. Currently, there’s about $260,000 sitting in the restricted fund, which can’t be raided by the state for any other purposes.

Stang said the DEC asked volunteer-run, Fish and Wildlife Management Area boards across the state to come up with projects for Habitat/Access Stamp funds, with the promise of $5,000 for each project. Only four of the state’s seven boards came back with proposals: Regions 4, 6, 7 (that’s us) and 9. The local project involves a stream restoration project on Chittenango Creek. The others involve fishing access.

What’s the hope for the stamp becoming mandatory?

Bopp said he’s not aware of any pending legislative bills. Stang noted apart from the Erie County Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs which has conducted contests to encourage sellers to sell more stamps, no other sportsmen’s association or group have picked up the cause – and that includes the Onondaga Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs, which Neff once led.

The potential, though, is eye-opening if one does the math. Last year, 900,000 state residents bought outdoor sporting licenses. An additional 200,000 hunters and fishermen from out of state also bought them. If the stamp was made mandatory, there’s potential for some $5.5 million to be raised, enough to pay for substantial projects.

Now that’s food for thought, particularly with our cash-strapped DEC. I’d like to hear from readers on this.

David Figura can be contacted at [email protected], by phone at 470-6066 and through Facebook at PS Outdoors.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog