Record Fishing and Hunting License Sales During Pandemic

If you feel like there’s more folks out enjoying the outdoors you would be correct. Utah State Parks and other agencies saw a significant jump of visitors during the pandemic, a trend that continues. DWR saw a record year for hunting and fishing license sales. From March 2020 to February 2021, they sold 222,124 combination licenses, compared to 183,358 from March 2019 to February 2020. A total of 417,883 fishing licenses were sold during the 2020-21 timeframe, an increase of more than 100,000 licenses from the year before. And 68,265 hunting licenses were sold, up from the previous year’s 50,551 hunting licenses. What is usually a 2% increase in license sales was at an increase of 28% during the pandemic. There was also an increase in the number of people who bought fishing or hunting licenses for the first time: 167,000 licenses were sold to first-time customers, compared to 121,000 in 2019. For more information and to buy your license, visit wildlife.utah.gov.