After 150 years of wildlife protection, financial instability threatens N.H. Fish and Game
By Chloe Kanner
Every summer, biologists camp out on the Isles of Shoals as part of a tern restoration project. Their uniforms include a hat covered in socks to protect them from defensive seabirds, and a raincoat to shield them from the droppings.
The effort that began with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department has paid off. The tern breeding colony has returned.
“They’re back all over the Seacoast, just like when I was a kid,” said Portsmouth resident Glenn Normandeau, executive director of N.H. Fish and Game.
His father, Donald Normandeau, was director of the department from 1987 to 1994, when populations of deer, moose, and wild turkeys rebounded in response to Fish and Game’s limits on hunting. And his father became the first chairman of the Wildlife Heritage Foundation, which was established in 2006 to help seek out funding for the department.
The search for stable funding continues, with Fish and Game still uncertain of its future in its 150th year of protecting and managing wildlife.
The cost
Fish and Game was intended to be self-funded through hunting and fishing fees, essentially paid for by the people who enjoy its services most. However, its responsibilities for and benefits to the general public have greatly expanded, and the department says funding has not kept up.
Fish and Game helps protect wildlife and habitat through research, fieldwork, and regulations. And, since the 1970s, officers have enforced boat, snowmobile and all-terrain vehicle laws. They also lead search and rescue missions when someone gets lost or stranded. As a result, the department has been calling attention to a funding shortfall in the years leading up to its 150th anniversary.
“No one has the intestinal fortitude to grapple with the financial issue for the long haul so we’re not dealing with it every two years.” — Glenn Normandeau of N.H. Fish and Game
Gov. Maggie Hassan’s budget proposal for the next two fiscal years includes more than $1.5 million for Fish and Game from the state’s General Fund. But that will only maintain the status quo for two more years, Normandeau said.
“I expect different things to plug the hole, but it’s only going to grow without some sort of systemic fix,” he said.
Fish and Game previously received about the same amount in “stop gap” funding to cover fiscal years 2014 and 2015. But, stable funding is needed for the long term. Normandeau said there are documents going back 100 years that raise this concern.
“No one has the intestinal fortitude to grapple with the financial issue for the long haul so we’re not dealing with it every two years,” he said.
Hassan also proposed Fish and Game set its own fees for licenses, which the department supports, and raising boat access fees. But, Normandeau said, fee increases tend to be a temporary solution, and not a popular one. In fact, higher fees may mean fewer sales. For decades, the department has undergone a cycle of raising fees, building up the Fish and Game Fund, then using that reserve up within a few years, Normandeau said.
Beginning in 2008, he said, three straight fiscal years ended with more than $5 million in the Fish and Game Fund, but in subsequent years, that money was needed to cover operating costs. The non-lapsing fund is projected to deplete by June.
“Despite repeated discussions about how the end is near, you can’t get people to move on it till the end is there,” Normandeau said.
License sales decreased significantly in the 1990s, partly due to changing demographics and interests, he said. More recently, the numbers have been steady, but there are fewer hunters per capita. Last year, 140,000 fishing and 60,000 hunting licenses were issued.
“When I was a kid growing up here, my total electronic entertainment consisted of playing a record or three channels on a black and white TV,” Normandeau said. “Many of us kids were avid hunters and fishers.”
A hunter safety class in New Hampshire in 1962.
Like many businesses, the department is dealing with the cost of health care. There’s also gasoline for 100 vehicles, maintenance for 55,000 acres of land, and electricity for five offices and six fish hatcheries. The department needs 250 tons of fish food per year, and it costs $100,000 per year to run the pumps of the Milford hatchery alone, Normandeau said.
A lot of little ideas, like new fees for canoeing and kayaking, won’t solve the problem as efficiently as a few big ones.
Solutions
Normandeau thinks the best solution for the department’s problems would be designating a portion of the state’s rooms and meals tax to Fish and Game. After all, he said, wildlife recreation contributes well over half a billion dollars to the economy every year.
Fish and Game receives significant federal funding through grants, and the state typically matches some portion. Together, this accounts for about one-third of its revenue. Much of that federal money is generated by sportsmen through taxes on equipment. But the use of grant money is predetermined and rarely helps with law enforcement.
Funding for Search and Rescue efforts comes from a $1 fee on every boat, snowmobile, and ATV registration. In recent years, these fees have not been sufficient, so the deficit is made up from the Fish and Game Fund.
“I personally think we need to look at the upper management and see what’s going on there. They’re making decisions that are putting themselves in this situation.” — Rep. John Burt
Normandeau believes rescue missions should be funded by the General Fund of the entire state, rather than by hunters and fishermen alone. “I’ve always felt it’s a public safety thing,” he said.
There is a legislative bill on the table that would require a plan to transfer Fish and Game to the Department of Safety. But, after a hearing on Feb. 5, there does not appear to be much support for the idea.
(R-Goffstown), primary sponsor of the bill, said its intent was to start a conversation. He said Fish and Game could reduce its budget by millions of dollars if the Department of Safety took over law enforcement and rescue operations.
“The bottom line is they’re bankrupt,” Burt said of Fish and Game. “I personally think we need to look at the upper management and see what’s going on there. They’re making decisions that are putting themselves in this situation.”
Normandeau said the two departments are dramatically different and neither one is interested in joining. “Our mission is fish and wildlife conservation,” he said.
The value
Fish and Game is responsible for managing all wild species, not just the ones that are hunted or fished. “All of these things have an intrinsic value,” Normandeau said. “The value that the department adds is enormous.”
Locally, Fish and Game’s responsibilities include stock assessments for the Atlantic coast fisheries, tagging egg-carrying lobsters and spawning river herring, and protecting the nests of piping plovers on beaches.
Also, at the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Greenland, the agency manages natural habitats and invasive species, monitors water quality, and studies climate change. There’s also a Discovery Center to teach children.
