Tough times for state wildlife agencies.

In New Jersey, the Division of Fish and Game recently had become so desperate to find new ways to contain costs and generate revenues that they tried something new in their pheasant hunting program.

Typically, the Division would raise and release pheasants, however, they were losing money on the program (about $300,000 per year). To save on the relatively high release costs, they decided to sell 20% of the pheasants raised directly to hunters (for private release). This would have at least covered the cost of the program, but they only sold about 1,000 of the 10,000 pheasants they hoped to sell.