| By Melinda Gable
CSF Executive Director
The following was extracted from
a speech given at the Governor’s Symposium
on North America’s Hunting Heritage.
I am a newcomer to the fish and
wildlife community. However, in the short time
I have been involved, I have noticed the same
topics keep surfacing as “critical”
issues sportsmen face.
These issues include decline
in participation, non-game issues sharing the
platform with wildlife management as they relate
to sportsmen’s concerns, and the anti-hunting
movement gaining credibility in public forums.
These trends have forced fish and wildlife resource
agencies to rethink their priorities and missions.
These issues should not be the
focus of sportsmen’s gatherings and conferences.
Sportsmen should not have to be defending their
birth right to hunt and fish. Although the general
public, animal rights groups, wildlife watchers
and local, state and federal legislatures are
unaware - or worse, are unappreciative - they
depend on the hunting and fishing business and
had better hope it continues.
In fact, most people don’t
think of hunting and fishing in economic terms,
but the figures revealed in this article, tell
the story of how America’s sportsmen and
women are one of the foundations of our economy.
In fact based on the figures I am about to present
to you I would venture to state that sportsmen
constitute a major economic force in the United
States.
FACT: If hunting and fishing
were a corporation, it would rank 10th on the
Fortune 500 list, ahead of AT&T and Philip
Morris.
FACT: Sportsmen support more jobs than twice the
number of workers employed by Wal-Mart - the largest
Fortune 500 employer.
FACT: Sportsmen supported jobs in Alabama outnumber
the combined employees of H.J. Heinz, General
Mills, and Quaker Oats – all Fortune 500
companies.
FACT: Tax
revenues generated by sportsmen exceed the box
office total of all United States movie theaters
or better yet the combined box office earnings
of the all-time top ten grossing films.
The problem sportsmen suffer
from is that we tend to argue on the basis that
hunting is our heritage and the American way.
What we forget or just don’t think about
is the economic side and how our sport compares
to other sectors of the economy. The cold blooded
fact is that the economic impacts of hunting and
fishing run deep and throughout nearly all facets
of business and industry.
By the end of this article I
will have presented solid economic figures reinforcing,
that not only are sportsmen vital to our economy,
but that the mantel of preserving and protecting
America’s wildlife is firmly shouldered
by sportsmen. That sportsmen have been the economic
backbone for the management of fish and wildlife
in every state in the country should not be questioned,
but instead praised and celebrated.
FACT: Federal
tax revenues generated by sportsmen could pay
for the combined budgets of the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, Endangered Species appropriation,
Bureau of Land Management, National Biological
Service, and National Park Service. For two years!
FACT: Federal
tax revenues from New York sportsmen alone could
pay for the entire U.S. Forest Service fish and
wildlife budget. Pennsylvania sportsmen could
pick-up the same tab.
FACT: Sportsmen’s
sales tax revenues generated in North Dakota,
South Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia could
pay for their state’s entire parks and recreation
budgets.
Given these economic figures,
visitors to our public lands, national parks,
wildlife watchers, and animal rights groups should
be thanking sportsmen for their economic contribution
to preserve and protect America's wildlife resources.
In addition, the Department of Labor should be
praising sportsmen for boosting employment and
Wall Street should be selling our stock.
But none of this is happening,
because sportsmen do a poor job of defending their
heritage. We need to stop talking to each other
and patting ourselves on the back. I am sure you
have already read in several magazines some of
these economic figures. But the articles were
all in hunting and fishing magazines that only
sportsmen read. We need to step out of our own
media box and start sharing our story with the
mainstream media.
The economic reality revealed
through these facts puts a new light on the way
wildlife and natural resources should be valued,
as well as, a better appreciation of sportsmen.
The obvious and overwhelming conclusion is that
not only are sportsmen a pillar in our economy,
they are also underwriting protection and management
of the country’s wildlife resources.
While hunting and fishing garners
widespread attention as a traditional activity,
they tend to get little recognition as a major
economic force. Let me give you examples of how
sportsmen’s dollars – YOUR DOLLARS
– come together and fan out into billions
of dollars that compare with other sectors of
the economy.
FACT: Sportsmen’s
retail sales in Alabama and Georgia are twice
the amount of those states annual agricultural
production of cotton.
FACT: In
Missouri, sportsmen’s retail sales are 1.5
times greater than the annual agricultural crop
production of corn and in Idaho sportsmen’s
retail sales equal the crop production of potatoes.
Comparing sportsmen’s economic impact to
the beef industry, Utah sportsmen retail sales
are 1.5 times greater than the state’s beef
production.
FACT: Sportsmen
spending surpasses the value of our country’s
major seafood states, South Carolina, Virginia,
Maryland, Louisiana and Maine by more than three
times the value.
Not many people would think that
hunting and fishing retail sales would exceed
mainstay agricultural crops. And I can guarantee
you that the general public and media are not
aware of these facts.
How do all these figures add
up to represent a bottom line in America’s
economy?
FACT: Sportsmen’s
assets equal, $60 billion in retail sales, 1.9
million jobs supported, 8.7 in state and federal
tax revenues, resulting in a $169 billion ripple
effect in our country’s economy.
In the end the best factoids
are those with a dollar sign in front of them.
Many representatives of local, state and federal
governments are unaware that sportsmen’s
spending is a major factor driving the engine
of our capitalistic society. However, there is
a sad side to all these compelling figures and
facts. This goes back to what I stated in the
beginning. Why are we as sportsmen having to defend
our birth right to hunt and fish?
The general public, legislatures,
your neighbors should all being thanking us for
creating tax revenues to pay for public land maintenance
and while at the same time creating tax revenues,
jobs and supporting goods and services. But they
are not, because they are unaware of the economic
impact sportsmen have on the economy.
There are industry and special
interest groups in Washington, DC that generate
less retail sales, support fewer jobs and create
a smaller ripple effect on our nation’s
economy, yet they have a far greater presence
in Washington, DC and your state capitol than
sportsmen do.
Sportsmen have strength in numbers
and could represent a solid voting constituency
if they banded together and thought of themselves
as a major political force. When the lobbyists
for the AARP (Association of American Retired
Persons) or labor union members walk the halls
of congress they carry clout because of their
shear size in numbers. However, sportsmen represent
far greater numbers. Consider this, there are
twice as people who hunt or fish than receive
Social Security and there are more sportsmen then
there are labor union members. Even more compelling
is the fact that if every sportsman voted in the
1996 presidential election, sportsmen would have
equaled 43% of the vote.
Unfortunately, sportsmen do not
view themselves as a voting bloc or as having
a strong voice in the democratic process. Certainly
our economic clout alone gives sportsmen the chance
to be heard. But this is where we are getting
killed.
These statistics may be dry and
dull compared to a morning on a deer stand or
on a bass lake, but when they add up to the kind
of strength these figures demonstrate, they suddenly
become exciting. These numbers tell a very compelling
story and if you are a sportsman, you need to
tell your federal and state representative. Your
legislatures need to know these figures when they
are facing important decisions on wildlife management
and hunting rights issues. It is our job as sportsmen
to make sure legislatures know the economic facts.
CSF conducts this study, because
we believe these figures are vital to the future
of hunting and fishing. We refer to ourselves
as the “Sportsmen’s link to Congress.”
By providing hunters and anglers with this information,
we are giving the economic ammunition every sportsman
needs to defend their hunting heritage.
We need to realize that emotional
pleas to defend our hunting heritage will fall
on deaf ears or will not be appreciated by those
who don't have the passion for the outdoors that
we possess. Instead, for the urbanites and asphalt
junkies, we need to speak the language of Wall
Street and start using the cold-blooded facts
of economics.
If we take this route, we will
be playing the game the way the Fortune 500 heavyweights
do and we will be using an approach that decision-makers
understand. Perhaps when people get a grasp of
the economic impacts of sportsmen and then consider
they are getting the protection and management
of America's wildlife to boot - they will treat
us like E.F. Hutton - when we speak everyone will
listen.
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