Re: Wildlife Management, BC vs US
Its fairly straightforward. In most (if not all) of the big hunting States, they realize how important it is to invest in Wildlife Mgt & research because of the trickle down effects it has on the economies of many small towns. So many people travel from out of state and drop big $$ in these hunting states (guides, hotels, gas, restaurants, gear from local sporting goods stores, tags etc.) and if there's no animals to hunt then all of that precious out of state $$ goes to nil.
One example I can give is the state of Idaho. They have a population of just over a million people and their annual wildlife budget is just over $100 million/year. Here in neighboring BC, we have about 5 times the population and spend about $40 million (less than half of what Idaho spends) on Wildlife Mgt (and almost none of that is spent on the research side). So it stands to reason that if we cared as much as Idaho does about wildlife mgt & research, we should be spending at least $500 million per year. The difference in investment dollars between BC and US states is staggering. We're not even in the same league
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