[ft-l] Interesting Statistics abut Florida outdoor recreation

[phale@harris.com (Hale, Pamela)]

Boy did I stir up a hornet's nest.  Let me try to clarify on my original point
(which was not supposed to be perceived as an 'us vs. them' thing but apparently
I did not communicate that properly).  Here goes:

Hunters do contribute through their license fees, but the fact is that there are
fewer hunting licenses issued in Florida every year - the group is shrinking.
Wildlife watchers do pay their entrance and camping fees as well as other
general taxes (which everybody pays!) which directly fund FFWCC and other
oversight agencies, and they do place a lot of dollars into the general economy.
This group is growing - good economic and development planners should be paying
attention.

What I meant by my comment was that - at least here in Florida - the hunter
group, small as it is, is very active and vocal on issues that affect them.
Whenever I hear from other outdoors users about how "hunters always get their
way," I have to ask them, "ok, so when was the last time you spoke up on an
issue?  Short story:  if you want to have an effect, you have to make noise.

Hope this clears things up a bit...?
~Pam
Knowledge is Power



-----Original Message-----
From: Carl Strohmenger [mailto:cstrohme@hsc.usf.edu]
Sent: 23 April, 2003 9:48 AM
To: Hale, Pamela
Subject: Re: [ft-l] Interesting Statistics abut Florida outdoor
recreation


The dollars spent are not broken down as to where spent and where those
dollars go! The dollars that hunters spend on license and take fees go
toward maintaining the forests, whaereas other dollars spent on gas,
food, lodging, binoculars, bird guidebooks, etc may help Florida's
general economy, but they do not contribute directly to the maintenance
of the forests. If Florida wildlife watchers paid fees that went to the
Div of Forestry for forest maintenance then I think their voices would
outweigh those of the hunters.

It is a fact that is somewhat inconvenient that the hunters pay for
forest maintenance while the bikers, hikers, horse riders, and bird
watchers generally do not. The only fees that these groups pay that may
go toward forest maintenance are some camping fees. Otherwise, we do not
pay our way!

I do not think it productive to stir up resentment against the hunter
groups when they are doing much more, in a monetary sense, than we
non-hunters are doing.

JMHO  :)

- Carl

"Hale, Pamela" wrote:
>
> Imagine, if only one-tenth of the Florida wildlife watchers spoke up about
> issues that concern them, their voices would outweigh 100% of the Florida
> hunters'.
>
> ~Pam
> Knowledge is Power
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Deb [mailto:dblick@cfl.rr.com]
> Sent: 22 April, 2003 10:17 PM
> To: Florida Trail Mailing List
> Subject: [ft-l] Interesting Statistics abut Florida outdoor recrestion
>
> I was just on the FWC website to check something out and ran
> across the newly released 2001 National Survey of Fishing,
> Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation report.  A link
> to the webpage with the link to the pdf is included below.
>
> Fishing:
> Number of people:  5,213,000
> Dollars spent, Florida Residents:  $3,426,795,000.00
> Dollars spent, non-residents: $4,083,409,000.00
>
> Hunting:
> Number of hunters: 496,000
> Dollars spent, Florida Residents: $545,627,000.00
> Dollars spent, non-residents: $394,229,000.00
>
> Wildlife Viewing:
> Number of people: 6,096,000
> Dollars spent, Florida Residents: $1,444,021,000.00
> Dollars spent, non-residents: $1,575,481,000.00
>
> Food for thought.
>
> Deb
>
> http://floridaconservation.org/whatsnew/03/wildlifewatchers-
> st.html
>
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