A run on guns and ammo .... may be a boon to Great Lakes wildlife.
A federal tax on the manufacture and import of firearms, ammunition, bows and arrows is distributed to states for wildlife conservation and hunter education programs. And those tax collections are climbing fast.
Background checks for gun purchases hit record levels in November and corresponded with significant gun and ammunition sales. Gun enthusiasts say they're stocking up because they fear interference in gun rights by the Obama administration.
The strong recent sales have tapered off, but even that short spike is good news for local wildlife agencies. While the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources received about $10 million last year – roughly one third of the wildlife section's operating budget — it recently got a heads up from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that more aid will be coming for 2010, said Dennis Simon, the wildlife management section chief for the MDNR.
"It is pretty exciting, particularly the next couple of years there's going to be a huge increase in federal aid coming our way," he said.
Approximately 22 percent of the nation's gun and ammunition taxes collected for wildlife restoration are distributed among the Great Lakes states. The impact of those funds is "tremendous, absolutely tremendous," said Chuck Nelson, an associate professor in the forestry department at Michigan State University. "If it wasn't for that money, we would be losing many of our biologists, many of the funds we have to maintain state game and wildlife areas."
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