AG&F Commission Ups Permit Ante

Non-resident hunters and fishermen not deterred by price hikes in Natural State

Non-resident license fees for fishing and hunting permits in Arkansas have both increased since August.

On Jan. 1, the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission in Little Rock raised all of its non-resident fishing licenses an average of 1.7 percent. In August, it raised the state’s non-resident game hunting licenses an average of 9 percent.

But that apparently hasn’t affected “The Natural State’s” ability to lure tourists who are interested in those activities, at least not in Northwest Arkansas. Randy Campbell, Springdale store manager for Nite Lite Outdoors Inc. in Little Rock, said his retail business has seen virtually no effect from the increases.

Campbell said there won’t ever be a decline in non-resident license sales as long as pricing changes are gradual.

“Missouri raised its non-resident five-day hunting license from $75 to $125 this year,” Campbell said. “I know there were a great number of people who usually go up there for turkey hunting who just stayed home. That’s because it was a $50 jump.

“When you only get a week, and really two days when you’re not working and can actually go, it’s hard to justify that. But only a couple of dollars here when our licenses are already cheap won’t cause any decline.”

During the AG&F Commission’s fiscal year ended June 30, 1999, revenue from all non-resident fishing licenses was $175,992, down less than 1 percent from $176,067 in 1998. All 1999 non-resident game hunting license revenue totaled $43,989, up 8.4 percent from $40,600 in 1998. The largest single game license portion annually comes from small-game five-day licenses, which totaled $16,790 in 1999, up 5.3 percent from $15,948 in 1998.

Alice Browning, assistant chief of the AG&F Commission’s fiscal division, said the license fee increases came more from not wanting to shortchange in-state hunters than from an attempt to increase revenue. She said it was simply a way to bring Arkansas’ fees more in line with its neighbors.

“The main reason is the licenses in all of our contiguous states are quite a bit more,” Browning said. “So Arkansas hunters who crossed the border into our neighbors were kind of getting shortchanged, since it was more expensive to hunt there and people could come into our state and hunt much cheaper.”

The AG&F Commission’s last non-resident fee increases came on Jan. 1, 1995, for fishing; on June 1 of 1996, for small-game hunting; and June 1 of 1995, for big-game hunting.

Non-resident five-day small-game licenses are the permit of choice for the thousands of duck hunters who flock to the Mississippi River Delta in eastern Arkansas each winter from states like South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee.

Arkansas waterfowl stamps are also required for duck hunting, but those figures are not included in permit totals. The state sold 78,700 waterfowl stamps in 1999 for a total of $551,334. That’s a revenue increase of 3.4 percent from 1998 when 76,000 stamps were sold to total $532,259.

Browning said any steep decline in the number of non-resident permits sold will not be evident for a couple of years. Many out-of-state hunters don’t visit every year, and it’s likely many who do won’t find out about the increases until they try to buy their Arkansas permits. No sizable changes have occurred following any fee increases in the past.

“There’s always one or two who won’t come back after that first year of an increase,” Browning said. “But we’ve only had one real slump in licenses and that was 10 years ago. The commission used a marketing campaign to make a concerted effort to educate young people about hunting, and we’ve never dropped off again.”

Larry Aggus, owner of Southtown Sporting Goods in Fayetteville, said his non-resident business is so far the same as it was a year ago.

“Arkansas’ non-resident license is still extremely competitive,” Aggus said. “If you go to Colorado, you’re going to pay $250 for an elk tag. Arkansas lets you in and gives you a run of the land fairly cheaply.

“Even if you sink a couple of hundred dollars in non-resident hunting licenses, it’s still one of the best values around.”