BROOKHAVEN — After a couple of down license sales reports, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks heard better news last week. The reports are important because 90 percent of MDWFP’s budget is funded by license sales. 

Jason Thompson, Director of Administrative Services, told the MDWFP commission at a regularly scheduled meeting in Oxford last Thursday that license sales had reached $10 million in revenue. The revenue he reported is from license sales starting July 1, 2024 to the end of Nov. 2024. 

“It was a one percent decrease from last year but November was a good month for license sales. We did get a bump,” Thompson said. “Non-resident license sales totaled $5.7 million compared to $5.8 million last year.”

MDWFP brought in around $5.4 million in license sales revenue in November. 

Decline seen nationally

United States Fish and Wildlife Service reports license sales were down in FY2024. Nationally, hunting license sales were down 0.11 percent resulting in a loss of $17,406 in funding while fishing license sales were down 0.67 percent resulting in a loss of $6,017,081 in funding. 

Mississippi did see a growth in hunting license revenue in FY2024 from FY2023. Thompson said previously he speaks with other states and agencies are noticing a small decrease in revenue and license sales again. COVID-19 helped get people back into the outdoors as shown in graphs published by the USFWS. The same graph also shows ups and downs in license sales with the peak number of license holders coming in 1982.

Thompson said previously they are looking for creative ways to offset any declines. He mentioned Ohio is selling a multi-year license and he is curious to see how it works for Ohio. 

A new system

Thompson said the new license sales system PayIt will go live on February 18, 2025. MDWFP is getting down to crunch time for the new system to be launched.

PayIt will help the agency with marketing and data collection. In turn, the information could help improve license sales. Recruitment, retention and reactivation is the model MDWFP’s marketing director Jeremy Bass points to as the key to improving license sales. 

“The new system can include so many different data sources we haven’t tapped into,” Thompson said. “We will be able to draw from parks data and see how many people who buy state park passes are actual hunters and then market directly to them. With fishing rodeos, we can measure the success of how many of those kids go on to buy a fishing license.”

Thompson said the agency has people training at this very moment to utilize the tools PayIt has to offer for license sales and marketing. He added he believes the new system will help license sales. 

The new license sales system comes at a time when the MDWFP is working hard to reach a broader audience with podcasts, redesigned publications and a website, increased presence on social media and improvements at State Parks.