I appreciated the jaundiced opinion of guest columnist Karl Meyer regarding factory (hatchery) production of “put and take” trout by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife for anxious fishermen and women (Gazette, June 6).

It is simply the work of an agency meeting the needs of constituents who significantly help fund the agency through license revenue (to wit, pay to play).

But it is indicative of a much larger problem, one that has been around for nearly a century, where fish and wildlife agencies nationwide have been supporting themselves by various means because they are rarely funded by state legislature general funds to carry out comprehensive fish and wildlife conservation.

State fish and wildlife agencies have always had to rely upon license revenue, federal sport fish and wildlife grants, voluntary incentives (e.g., Massachusetts’ “Preserve the Trust” auto license plates), and the like. It shows that state legislatures are unappreciative of the hunting and fishing community and their own state wildlife agencies, at least financially. 

And that they have even less appreciation for wildlife enthusiasts who are not hunters or fishers, but who spend plenty on their passion (e.g., birders). Wildlife-associated recreation provides significant financial support for wildlife conservation in our nation’s economy.

According to preliminary information from the 2011 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife Recreation, 90 million people, 38 percent of all Americans 16 years and older, participated in wildlife-related recreation in 2011 and spent $145 billion dollars.

Just visit a Cabelas, Bass Pro Shop, or Gander Mountain and you’ll be utterly amazed at what is spent on fish and game recreation. Fortunately, excise taxes on products like guns and fishing gear support federal grants to state fish and wildlife agencies.

This spending supports thousands of jobs in industries and businesses connected to fishing, hunting and the observance of wildlife. But even with this impressive information, legislatures are accustomed to letting fish and wildlife agencies fend for themselves and almost requiring that they focus on “put and take” activities. 

Steve Funderburk

Pelham