Why It Matters: For over 80 years, sportsmen and women have been the primary funders of conservation in North America. The “user pays – public benefits” structure of the American System of Conservation Funding (ASCF) relies on those who consumptively use the resource to pay for the privilege to do so. Today, most state fish and wildlife agencies receive about 80% of their funding through this system, although many rely nearly entirely on sportsmen and women generated dollars. However, some Southeastern states have taken a proactive approach at providing a dedicated stream of conservation funding to supplement money generated through license sales and excise taxes in a world of growing inflation.
Highlights:
- In 2018, the Georgia General Assembly and Georgia voters passed the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Act by 83%. This created the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Program, which is funded by taking a percentage of the sales and use tax from outdoor recreation equipment sales to be used for a variety of conservation purposes.
- In 2022, Mississippi passed legislation establishing the Mississippi Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund, which is currently being funded by appropriations by the legislature to provide additional funding, available for federal match, to further conserve wildlife habitat and bolster recreational and public access opportunities for Mississippi’s sportsmen and women.
- Also in 2022, Louisiana passed House Bill 406, which established the Louisiana Outdoors Forever Program. Similarly to Mississippi, funding is received through a legislative appropriation and is being used to further conservation efforts in the “Sportsman’s Paradise.”
As the cost of living continues to creep up for most Americans, so does the cost of doing business in most sectors. Science-based fish and wildlife management is no different. State fish and wildlife agencies are strapped with the burden of rising operating costs, no different than any other business. As the increase in users, and thus hunting and fishing license sales, from the COVID-19 pandemic have mostly resided, many state fish and wildlife agencies are searching for alternative dedicated funding sources to combat rising costs and continue to execute the critical on the ground conservation work essential to supporting our time-honored traditions. Several Southeastern states are leading by example with the implementation of different dedicated conservation funding mechanisms.
In 2018, Georgia passed the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Act, which authorized up to 80% of all the money received by the state from the sales and tax collected from outdoor recreation equipment to go to the Georgia Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund to be used to fund the protection of conservation land, which will support parks and trails, the ability to protect and acquire lands critical to wildlife, and more across the state of Georgia.
While Mississippi’s Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund does not yet incorporate the sales and use tax dollars generated from the sale of outdoor sporting good equipment like Georgia, it still provides a significant funding mechanism to encourage investment into outdoor recreation and conservation projects in Mississippi. The Mississippi Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund can be used for a wide variety of purposes including acquisition of areas used for hunting and fishing, improvement of state parks and trails, enhancement of public land and water access, and restoration of privately owned working agricultural and forest lands, wetlands, grasslands, and other habitats critical to Mississippi’s wildlife. In 2024, House Bill 999 would have deposited a portion of pre-existing sales tax revenue on certain outdoor sporting goods into the Mississippi Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund, further strengthening Mississippi’s commitment to wildlife conservation and providing a dedicated source of funding for the program that would not be reliant on legislative appropriations.
Very similar to Mississippi, Louisiana established the Louisiana Outdoors Forever Program in 2022. The program was initially funded with $10 million in seed money aimed at fish and wildlife habitat, water quality or public hunting and fishing access improvement. Ideally, both Louisiana and Mississippi will ultimately secure self-sustaining funding, like a dedicated tax on outdoor recreation equipment, similarly to Georgia.
The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) encourages states that are interested in pursuing a dedicated conservation funding mechanism to look at successful examples like we have seen in Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana. As states begin to explore new ways to fund conservation, like in Tennessee for example, CSF looks forward to working closely with partners and the state’s respective legislative sportsmen’s caucus to make meaningful advancements to conservation.
