Agency Organization and Funding in the Service of Wildlife Conservation

Abstract: State wildlife departments are among the oldest conservation agencies in the United States. They formed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the wake of severe depletion of many native wildlife stocks and some cases of extinction. As stocks of species such as deer, elk, turkey, antelope, and waterfowl rebounded dramatically during the 20th century, the organization and funding of agencies also evolved. This paper examines the causes and consequences of these changes. In the late 19th century state intervention evolved from season closures and other limitations on access to a system of licenses managed by state agencies. This system was significantly modified in the mid-20th century when federal legislation directed federal excises taxes on hunting and fishing equipment to wildlife agencies for specific purposes on the condition that those agencies did not direct state license funds to non-wildlife avenues. These federal programs remain in place today and are the bulwark of funding for state wildlife agencies along with hunting and fishing license revenues. The paper provides an overview of the history of wildlife agency funding and organization and develops an economic framework for analyzing agency budgets and behavior before and after Pittman Robertson. The paper uses panel data on state agency budgets and allocations decisions from 1925 to 2018 to test the implications derived from the economic models.