Financial Returns To Industry From The Federal Aid - Wildlife and ...

through hunting license dollars, state bonds or other non-Wildlife Restoration funding
mechanisms.
However, since 2001 the maintenance costs and habitat work for all of the PGC's
holdings is covered by the Wildlife Restoration program. This amounts to approximately
$9.2 million per year in Wildlife Restoration funding over the period highlighted in this
case study (2006-2008). These funds are used for maintaining forest openings;
controlling invasive plants; controlled burning; planting shrubs, trees and other wildlife
food; providing and maintaining access roads and parking areas; maintaining and
posting boundaries; publishing maps of the areas; and other habitat management and
public-access activities.
Surveys indicate that 40% of Pennsylvania's deer hunters hunt primarily on the state's
public lands, and 27 % of Pennsylvania's turkey hunters hunt primarily on State Game
Lands. In 2009, this equated to 689,244 deer hunter days and 386,014 turkey hunter
days on Game Lands. Similar hunter use has been generated each year. This estimate
represents a minimum number of hunter days because hunters pursuing grouse,
squirrel and other game also use Game Lands extensively.
In Pennsylvania, both deer and turkey are considered big game. For that reason, hunter
tax-related equipment and total purchases are calculated using state-level estimates
from 2006 National Survey data for total purchases by big-game hunters only. Because
state-level big-game purchases are not itemized by category, a national-level
adjustment factor of 19.1% is utilized to isolate tax-related item sales from these total
purchases. It is assumed that Pennsylvania‟s big-game hunters‟ purchasing patterns
are similar to those of other big-game hunters across the nation.
Per-day tax related purchases are estimated to have a current day value of $11.51 after
adjusting for a 30% market-chain mark-up. Annual tax-related item purchases of the 1.1
million deer and turkey hunter days utilizing state game lands are estimated to total
$12,377,709. Total purchases are estimated to be $78.22 per day, which translates to
$84,109,754 per year.
Table 5: Return on Investment Analysis: Pennsylvania Game Lands
Year
Total WR
Investments
(2009 $s)
Excise Tax-
Related ROI
Total
Project
ROI
2006 $8,552,380 44.7% 883%
2007 $9,548,591 29.6% 781%
2008 $10,064,365 23.0% 736%
Average $9,388,445 31.8% 796%
Wildlife Restoration investment funds are also inflated to 2009 dollars and average $9.4
million per year (Table 5). Both total and tax related equipment item purchases
exceeded those funds invested in the program. Net return on total purchases ranges
between $74.0 and $75.5 million generating a Total Project ROI between 736% and
39