They can't always get it right

As I was having my morning cup of coffe today I came across and news article I found intersting. The article was yet another from my state of Wisconsin. It seems an account handled by the DNR has a bottom line that has been plumiting for some time now. Bad enough that the state decided there needed to be an audit.
The audit showed an ending balance of $28.3 million on June 30, 2001. It dropped to $6.7 million by June 2003 and to $1 million last June. This audit also showed that legislature needed to transfer $4.3 million into the account to keep it from having a negative balance at the end of this fiscal year. Some hunters and anglers have questioned whether the money they pay in license fees is being properly spent to support hunting and fishing opportunities. The audit found nearly 98 percent of the money is being spent to provide "some level of benefit" to hunters and anglers.
The audit said two trends are likely to continue to put pressure on the account:

# A declining interest in both hunting and fishing among children and young adults, leading to reduced license sales as older people move away from the sports.

# A decline in the sale of deer hunting licenses related to concerns about chronic wasting disease.

Many state officials must think there is a big problem too. Now I understand the move to take the regulating of hunting from the DNR for the next three years.

First off, the drops in those numbers are way to big of a pill to swallow. Yes there probably has been a decline in intrest to hunt here, although I'm not so certain it is for the reasons they state. Yes, the discovery of CWD indoutably had an effect too. It would seem though they have it kinda twisted. What they didn't state in the audit was how many out of state hunters stoped coming here because of earn a buck. Anyone reading this who is a hunter would probably like to come to Wisconsin for a crack at one our monster whitetail bucks. Would you pay travel and other costs incured to come here and have to shoot a doe? I think not. The earn a buck was put into effect after CWD was found. It seemed suddenly we were over populated and needed to thin the heard. Hmmm, funny, before CWD there was no mention of there being to many deer here.
Then you have the decline in young people wanting to get involved in hunting. The state has every year a youth only hunt. I think this is a fabulous way to introduce kids to hunting. Not to mention they can get out in the woods when they are the only ones out there, making it a rich rewarding experience for them. The problem is, this hunt is only held in one state park. I wonder how many kids would like to participate but can't make the trip to do so. They don't have numbers for that do they? I would also have to guess, if you made this hunt state wide on other properties, more kids would be involved and many of them would be happy to shoot a doe for their first deer. WOW! Now we don't need to earn a buck and maybe the hunters will come back and spend that all mighty dollar.