Changes in social behavior and public financing will increasingly affect how we fund the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and whether some of the Pacific Northwest’s outdoor traditions are able to continue.

Our Capital Bureau reported Tuesday that a task force charged with finding sustainable funding for ODFW is considering holding off on scheduled license fee increases. It wants to see if the Legislature approves either an income tax surcharge or a surcharge on beverage containers to fund the department.

About a third of the agency’s budget — roughly $60 million a year — is generated by selling hunting and fishing licenses. State and federal funds account for two-thirds.

Like many other states, Oregon has experienced a gradual but inexorable decline in the number of people still interested in harvesting their own wild fish and game. And like other states, Oregon has partially offset this decline in participation by raising license fees on those who remain. This results in a cycle of less financially advantaged residents being squeezed out of hunting and fishing, along with those whose who have only marginal enthusiasm for rod and gun sports.

As much or perhaps more than other recreational activities, interest in hunting and fishing typically is established in childhood or not at all. Fish and Wildlife and its peers around the nation have taken a variety of steps to encourage parents to get kids engaged in the outdoors, offering free or discounted license options, special events and other incentives. But if parents can’t afford to go hunting or fishing themselves, it’s unlikely their children will.

This leads to the kinds of internal struggles evidenced by the state’s task force, which is reluctantly eying two license fee increases — one in 2018 and another in 2020, with future increases indexed to inflation.

These increases come at the same time other hunting and fishing costs also are on the rise. In addition to the constant struggle to afford insurance and upkeep on vehicles and vessels, hunters in particular face steep increases in fees they must pay for access to many previously free forestlands. Weyerhauser and other corporations have been aggressively raising access fees — ostensibly as a way to pay for forest upkeep.

Why should the majority of citizens who neither fish nor hunt care about any of this? Many who enjoy nature in ways that do not require licenses — everything from birdwatching to the satisfaction of knowing wild places exist — individually pay a few dollars in taxes a year to ODFW operations, as opposed to $180 for a full combination adult license fee.

Oregon Public Broadcasting reported this week on the difficulties Fish and wildlife has in funding conservation measures for nongame species — everything from bats to frogs. Problems like this will get nothing but worse if hunting and fishing participation rates and license income continue to languish.

What can we do? Certainly support legislative efforts to establish a reliable safety net for ODFW funding. Other voluntary options already exist and are fully described at http://bit.ly/2f8YQ1Q. One of the easiest is buying $20 habitat conservation stamps via the internet or at any location that sell fishing and hunting licenses.

If we care about Oregon wildlife — and surveys show we strongly do — we have to figure out new ways to pay for the vital work performed by Fish and Wildlife.