First State Hunting License Fee Enacted (1864)

According to the website “On This Day,” April 30, 1864 is the date when the first fee for a hunting license was established by the State of New York. I’ve not been able to confirm that event, and usually I wouldn’t validate such a claim with a post if I couldn’t directly verify it from several sources.

But since nothing much else happened in conservation on any April 30, I am going to take the chance that this is a true historical event. Why? Because it gives me a chance to reflect on the importance of hunting and fishing licenses and fees to conservation.

Before getting to the money, however, lets note the reality that hunters and anglers were the first folks who really spoke up for wildlife in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Those who exploited wild game and fish resources recognized that harvests were too high and populations were declining and even disappearing. So, they started talking about it, around the U.S. and around the world, and pressing for government action. Here’s how Teddy Roosevelt put the case:

“In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen. The excellent people who protest against all hunting, and consider sportsmen as enemies of wildlife, are ignorant of the fact that in reality the genuine sportsman is by all odds the most important factor in keeping the larger and more valuable wild creatures from total extermination.”

They argued for all the conservation tools that we now take for granted: seasons defining when people can fish and hunt; limits on the size and number of animals killed; controls on the kind of equipment that can be used; refuges where animals are free from hunting or fishing; and, perhaps most fundamental, elimination of commercial hunting in the U.S.