I spent $50 on my Pennsylvania hunting license this summer, something that fewer and fewer people are doing across the country. Basically, it gives me permission to bag what an old college professor called "charismatic megafauna" - cute animals and birds, in suburban speak.
But it also allows the state funding to conserve many other species the non-hunting public also enjoys, such as songbirds that live in the same meadows as pheasants and rabbits or the woodpeckers that make their homes in the same trees that break up the silhouette of deer coming my way.
According to the latest numbers, hunters are dropping at an alarming rate for wildlife managers who depend on license fees to conserve everything in the natural world.
Would it be possible to find that money elsewhere? Would you pay for a hiking, kayaking or bird-watching license?
I would pay a fee of some sort to hike, if I knew it were going to the plants and animals im the park itself, not someone's paycheck.