On January 1, 2017, the fees for Alaska sport fishing, hunting and trapping licenses and tags will go up. It’s the first time in 24 years that hunting license and tag fees have increased and the first time in a decade for sport fishing.
Maria Gladziszewski is the deputy director of the Wildlife Conservation Division at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. She said several conservation and sportsmen’s groups spearheaded the effort to raise the prices.
“Sportsman’s groups got together in the last couple of years and started lobbied the legislature to say they wanted to pay increased fees to get increased research and management from the department,” Gladziszewski said. “Also in the era of declining state revenue, those sportsmen realized that once again, they wanted to step up to the plate.”
The price for a resident sport fishing, hunting, and trapping will increase from $62 to $94. The price for non-resident annual hunting & trapping $250 to $405. The low income sport fishing, hunting, and trapping license, however, will remain $5.
Gladziszewski said the funds will go largely toward management and research. She estimated that the Wildlife Division alone will see a $5 million increase this year.
“All of the things we do as a division it will provide funding for,” Gladziszewski said. “The vast majority of our work is in basic survey and inventory and research and management on game species. So it’s for that. It’s for intensive management work. It’s to fund our efforts to make sure we keep state management of wildlife.”
The increase will also allow the Fish and Wildlife division to receive more federal funds because they will have increased state funds for matching.
