The Fish and Boat Commission may target college anglers with a license change.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures
These are unchartered waters, even for an agency responsible for managing them.
Right now, anyone who fishes Pennsylvania lakes, rivers and streams – but calls another state home – pays non-resident license prices. That’s $51, plus another $1.90 in fees.
Such is how things have always been.
Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commissioners might tweak that.
They have staff reviewing a proposal to let non-resident students attending college or a trade school buy a license at in-state prices while here. That’s $21, plus fees.
It’s all about maintaining the ranks.
The commission, like all fish and wildlife agencies around the country, is struggling to replace anglers who age out of fishing with new ones on a one-to-one basis.
That’s sparked the growth of the “R3” movement. Recruitment, retention and reactivation are the buzzwords in the effort to sustain the license buying base.
Agencies all around the country are hiring R3 coordinators specifically to work on the issue. And the commission is in the process of doing the same, said executive director Tim Schaeffer.
The notion of discounted license fees for college students, he said, is something that person will examine.
“We want this to be one of the tools they look into,” Schaeffer said.
It’s a novel idea.
“We have not been able to find any other states that are doing this,” said Stephanie Vatalaro, senior vice president of marketing and communications at the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation. “Sounds cool, though.”
But whether it’s a good idea remains to be determined.
There are a fair number of non-resident students – or at least non-resident anglers of that age – buying licenses now. Bernie Matscavage, director of the commission’s administration bureau, pegged the total at 2,123. That’s based on a review of the automated licenses sales system.
If the commission discounted the price they pay, he said it would need to recruit another 2,100 college anglers to break even financially.
No one yet knows if that market exists.
Brian Barner, the commission’s deputy executive director for administration, said the commission needs to figure out if students who won’t fish at $51 might for $21.
“What is the price point that changes behavior? We just don’t know that stuff yet,” Barner said. “So that’s why we need to do a little more research.”
There’s anecdotal evidence $51 is too much for some, though.
Commissioner Charles Charlesworth of Lackawanna County said a number of Pennsylvania colleges and universities have fishing teams. Three campuses have trout streams running through them.
He asked fishing team members from several of those schools about their biggest roadblocks to recruiting.
“The number one answer was out of state, non-resident license fees,” Charlesworth said. “(Students) just wouldn’t join because they weren’t going to pay that money.”
Matscavage said the commission will study the issue into next year. It will roll out any fee changes no earlier than 2021.
Commissioner Richard Lewis of Adams County, who first broached this idea, is OK with that. But he said the call on whether to proceed should not be a financial decision alone.
“I just think it’s the right thing to do,” Lewis said.
College anglers and the bigger picture
This might be just a start.
If the Fish and Boat Commission offer discounted licenses to non-resident college students it won’t do so in a vacuum.
Rather, it might take a “holistic” approach, said executive director Tim Schaeffer. It would integrate this decision into all agency operations.
For example, that could mean tweaking the trout stocking schedule around college campuses to put more fish out before the spring semester ends, when students are still in class.
“We’d want to be smart about how to really maximize this,” he said.
If possible, it might even make sense stock ponds and other waters on college campuses, added commissioner Richard Lewis.
“This is just one of many things to look at,” said board president Eric Hussar of Union County.
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See also: Recruitment, retention, reactivation focus of the outdoors world
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