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Show Survey To Include Non Sportsmen of Region If you don't hunt or fish, that doesn't mean ou won't be contacted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about the wildlife-related activities you do enjoy. The "1975 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife Associated Recreation" now beginning has been broadened to reflect and document a growing national interest in the entire spectrum of wildlife resource uses. The survey will differ from past studies which have been done at five-year intervals since 1955. Not only will the base of hunters and fishermen be expanded by sampling a far greater number of rural communities, but new questions will be added for those people who enjoy wildlife from a different perspective such as photography and birdwatching. The questions were prompted by dramatic Increases in visits to National Wildlife refuges by the general public in the past five years. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initiated the five-year surveys at the request of the International Association of Game, Fish and Conservation Commissioners, representing the state natural resource agencies. The surveys provide the kind of comprehensive data that state agencies and local conservation organizations need to design and implement wildlife programs and research. The 1975 survey, like those of the past, will be published in early 1977 by the Government Printing Office and offered as a sales item to the public. Outdoor writers, conservationists and many others use the survey as a valuable reference document. Highlights of the most recent survey show the kind of useful data compiled. Hunters and Fishermen in 1970, for eample, spent a combined total of $4.1 billion, participated In 910 million recreation days, and traveled 39 billion passenger miles. Fishermen numbered over 33 million and hunters over 14 million. Funds for the survey come from the federal excise taxes on sporting and fishing gear, which also serve as the financial basis for federal aid programs to states for wildlife restoration, land acquisition, and hunter safety programs. |