Important wildlife conservation funding program celebrates 75 years
            Most Oklahoma sportsmen could not imagine their state without the whitetail deer, but hunters today harvest record and near-record numbers of whitetails year after year. Additionally, the once-scarce wild turkey is now hunted in all 77 Oklahoma counties, and sportsmen enjoy other generous hunting seasons, lush habitats and millions of acres of water available for fishing. But it is only through their own commitment to hunting and fishing that fish and wildlife thrives today in the state — namely through their purchase of hunting and fishing licenses and through their participation in the now 75-year-old federal Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program. 

            Prior to the late 1930s, wildlife had grown scarce in Oklahoma due to unregulated overharvesting of game dating as far back as the days of settlement and early statehood. But the establishment of what is now the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation and the work that followed through hunter participation and the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program has helped restore Oklahoma’s native wildlife. 

            The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program is a means of funding conservation by which hunters and anglers are not only the primary supporter but also the primary beneficiary, along with native wildlife and habitat. 

            On September 2, 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act, which raises funds through a dedicated tax on sporting guns and ammunition. These “excise taxes,” as they are called, are charged by the federal government to manufacturers of products and usually passed on by the manufacturers to consumers — in this case hunters. Then in 1950, the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act was enacted. Through this law, the same type of taxes are charged to the manufacturers of certain fishing equipment and boat fuels. As with the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act, manufacturers generally pass on these taxes to boaters and anglers. 

            The federal government collects these taxes, which includes among others an 11 percent tax on certain firearms, ammunition and archery equipment and a 10 percent tax on certain sport fishing equipment. Then the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service administers and disburses these funds to the state fish and wildlife agencies as part of what is called the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program. Since hunters, anglers, shooters and boaters ultimately pay these taxes through their purchase of products, it is fitting that these are the same people who benefit from these funds, since the states must spend the money on conservation. This includes such projects as sportfish and wildlife habitat restoration, habitat development, wildlife population management, user access and facilities and education.

            “It’s frightening to imagine what Oklahoma’s rich traditions of hunting and fishing might look like today without the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program,” said John Stafford, federal aid coordinator for the Wildlife Department. “This unique partnership (WSFRP) between hunters, anglers, boaters, recreational shooters, manufacturers and governments certainly is the backbone of wildlife conversation funding.”

            In Oklahoma, the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration funds have been by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation for countless projects to benefit wildlife and the hunters and anglers who use the outdoors. Land purchases, wildlife proliferation, habitat restoration, lake and wetland development, hatchery construction, research, public access to recreational opportunities, education and many other efforts have resulted from the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program over the last 75 years. 

            In short, the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Program (WSFR) is one of the most significant and successful partnership approaches to fish and wildlife conservation in U.S. history.