This story was originally produced by the New Hampshire Bulletin, an independent local newsroom that allows NHPR and other outlets to republish its reporting.
When the state Department of Fish and Game proposed an increase to the cost of hunting and fishing licenses earlier this year, the feedback the agency received from hunters and anglers was largely positive, officials said.
But shortly after those information-gathering sessions, the department pulled back the changes until at least next year, a move Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s office later said she had requested.
“Governor Ayotte opposes increasing fees for fishing licenses,” wrote spokesperson John Corbett, senior advisor to the governor, in an email statement last week. “Fish and Game clearly didn’t adequately consult with stakeholders before bringing forward this proposal, so the Governor directed Fish and Game to pull back these proposed rules.”
The twist follows four initial discussion sessions, hosted by Fish and Game, that the department said yielded “overwhelmingly positive” feedback. Members of the public speaking at the sessions expressed “full support of increased fees,” reads a summary of the meeting shared by Department Executive Director Stephanie Simek and Administrative Assistant Tanya Haskell. “Most felt it was long overdue and the proposals were not enough of an increase,” the memo reads.
In the wake of the pause, the hunting and angling lobbying group Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation has expressed concern that delaying the fee increases will exacerbate financial strain on Fish and Game. The department is self-funded, meaning it must raise the majority of its own revenue through means such as license fees.
“They haven’t had a substantial (fee) increase in 10 years. They’re overdue. They have to get with the times. … We want to make sure (Fish and Game) is open for business,” said Fred Bird, Eastern states senior manager with the foundation.
The cost for a 16-year-old to purchase a lifetime license for hunting, fishing, or both is the same as it was in 2016, according to a fee schedule from that year posted on the Fish and Game website.
The department’s budget funds its activities related to conservation of wildlife and their habitat, search and rescue, research and law enforcement, and maintenance of natural areas and infrastructure like boat launches.
In the department’s 2024-2025 biennial report published last September, Simek wrote that the department was in need of new sources of revenue.
“A revised and sustainable funding model is essential to ensure our long-term capacity to fulfill our mission effectively,” she wrote.
Revenue from license fees covered about one-quarter of the department’s expenditures in fiscal year 2025, according to the report.
The fee increases would have seen the cost of season and one-day hunting and fishing licenses increase by $2. The fee for a resident fishing license, for example, would have increased from $43 to $45. With 77,951 resident freshwater fishing licenses sold in New Hampshire last year, this 4.6% change in cost would have generated an additional $155,902 within that category alone. Other hunting and fishing license categories — including resident and nonresident hunting, fishing, combination, and one-day licenses — also increased by $2.
Other proposed fee increases varied. The largest was the cost for a newborn’s lifetime combination hunting and fishing license, which would have risen to $475, an increase of $175 or about 58% over its previous rate. The proposal would have seen the cost of a hike safe card increase to $30, compared to its current fee of $25. The wildlife habitat license fee, charged once per year with the purchase of a hunting or fishing license, was proposed to double from $2.50 to $5. And for lifetime hunting or fishing licenses, fees for most age groups increased by less than $10.
“You look across the country at how fees and permits have gone up, and … we are very cheap,” Bird said. “We do ourselves a disservice by not keeping up with the times.”
Input from the public at the sessions “raised several considerations that warranted further evaluation,” Simek and Haskell said via email. (They added that the sessions were not recorded because they were not part of the formal rulemaking process.)
“Given the volume and substance of the feedback, pausing the process was the most prudent course,” they wrote.
Yet a fee increase could still be in the works. The department will continue to evaluate the proposed rule changes in 2027, the release said. Officials also committed to continuing “public engagement work” related to that process, though the previously planned public hearings have not yet been rescheduled.
Since 2025, Ayotte has been a member of the Governors Sportsmen’s Caucus, a network of governors organized through the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation who collaborate in support of hunting and fishing. Bird said the governor has supported the foundation’s mission in the past, and he was hopeful some form of fee increase would move forward in the future.
“Conservation-minded sportsmen and women, we understand the importance of these fees, of the generating of revenue,” he said. “… This isn’t a dead issue.”
