For the past 10 years, revenues from sport licensing have been steadily falling in Oregon, as well as most states across the country, especially those in the west. Causes range from electronic hunting games to remote hunting websites and the increasing age of the baby boomer generation. Funding of natural resource management has suffered from this downturn in revenues.
Using Oregon as an example, the shared revenues from just the first six months of Sasquatch Hunt lottery fees in 2008 has had a significant impact on their state funding. Already, the income level has returned to 2006 levels with projections to completely make up the shortfall by the 2011 fall hunting season. If our future plans can be implemented sooner, a more rapid recovery is possible.
It is speculated that the high demand stems from increased sasquatch sightings in 2008 and a mild winter. The 2008 sightings indicate the possibility of a large population growth of sasquatch in the spring. Due to a much higher than anticipated participation level in this premiere hunt lottery, not enough hunting stamps were manufactured. The initial 1,300,000 stamps were distributed to state licensing stations across the seven initial states participating in the program. Many stations were over-run with sportsmen and ran out of stamps quickly. This led to many frustrated hunters and concerns over the ability of a national system to work well on a state level. Since December, the move to a mail-in only lottery with a central tracking location has ensured everyone can participate and receive their hunting stamp in a timely manner.
The brown line on the chart is verified historic information, while the blue line is projection based on current data.
