JACKSON — Revenue for the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks is down according to a report given Thursday morning. License sales fund 90 percent of the MDWFP budget which is why the report is so important each month.

Jason Thompson, Director of Administrative Services, told MDWFP’s commissioners in a meeting Thursday the revenue for Fiscal Year 2025 to date at the end of Sept. 2024 was $2.9 million. The figure is a $250,000 decrease in revenue compared to last year. 

Thompson said while they did see a 13 percent increase in the purchase of velvet season permits other licenses and privileges were down. Non-resident license sales through Sept. 2024 were at $1 million, a decrease of $200,000 compared to last year’s report of $1.2 million. 

“Unlike some states, we totally depend on our license sales,” Commission Chairman Scott Coopwood said. 

Why the drop

Revenue reports do fluctuate and it is possible the revenue could bounce back at November’s meeting. Thompson said it is hard to say what exactly caused the decrease in revenue. His staff will take a deeper dive into the numbers. He added MDWFP could launch a survey for non-returning non-resident customers asking them why they were not purchasing a license again. 

“We will have an approach to get to the bottom of why there was a drop,” Thompson said. 

July’s reports for revenue was down $23,000 compared to last year and August’s report for revenue was up $110,000. Thompson said at the September commission meeting the figure for August was up due to how dove season fell on Sept. 1 which was a Sunday this year. 

He pointed to the dove season opener again Thursday afternoon as a factor behind the revenue report. Hunters bought licenses on the Friday and Saturday before the opener which fell in the August revenue report.

“We knew this report would be down to earth,” Thompson said. “I hope it turns around with deer season. We will just have to wait and see. It is early. Deer season can turn things around.”

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 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 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.