Way too much info in the original post to go into any detail here. I was an employee of the ODW. I’ve seen it from the inside as well as from the outside. Three things here are fact.

1. ODW’s budget funding sources have long been the envy of most other ODNR divisions, and people have tried though the years to get some of those funds somehow distributed to other divisions within ODNR.

2. The main reason for the ODW’s decline in revenue or lack of sufficient revenue is low (declining) recruitment in the sports of hunting and fishing, primarily hunting.

3. If we, all of us, don’t make our conservation priority recruitment of new people into the traditional outdoor sports of hunting and fishing, little to none of this is going to matter in 20-30 years.

Unfortunately the decline in participants and the resulting decline in revenue means the financial burden is now spread out among fewer people. We have to accept that, just like any organization. If we want to pay less we have to recruit more. It’s really that simple. Meanwhile we’ll have to take a few more dollars out of our pockets to buy that next hunting license and fishing license in order to give us the chance to keep going and get those recruitment numbers trending up. If we give them an increase ODW needs to keep up their end and spend our money wisely and efficiently.

Another part of this is finding new income streams. I’ve talked with ODW personnel as well as State, County, and local park systems about this, the opportunities that are out there. The current structure and politics make this hard to do. Most of the barriers in place by both of those need to come down so these organizations can vigorously pursue the opportunities. In the short run recruitment can’t make up all the difference.

Oh, and the fishing today (Friday June 09) was NW and west of the NW corner of Kelleys Island. Decent to good catches.

My 4 cents (increase in cost) :-)