NH Fish & Game Expense Question

[dug]

I was digging around last night, trying to find information that breaks down the NH F&G expenses, and failed. First, I am not advocating for or against any fees, validity of charges, the Hike Safe Card, etc.

That disclaimer being said...the crux of my question related to that it SEEMS there have been a lot of ATV & Snowmobile accidents over the last year. I say "SEEMS" because with everything now, there is more press about them, not necessarily more actual incidents. In reading through many articles related to these accidents, most at the minimum have details along the lines of "...Fish & Game responded and will be looking to see if any charges will be applied." I would think there is some cost to assisting an injured (or worse) party from the woods, and also the law enforcement aspect.

My curiosity got the better of me, and I began to think "Yeah, I do understand that 'hiker' S&R is a drain on the budget, and most of the budget comes from Fishing, boating, snowmobile and ATV licenses/registrations. How much of the F&G expense actually comes down to the 'hiker issue' compared to this other activity?"

Again, not saying the fishing/hunting/ATV advocates don't have a legit reason or not, just curious how much of the budget gets used up on negligent, or reckless behavior, that is NON hiking related. Does that break even?

 

[egilbe]

My brother registered his ATV for the year in NH becuase they use a lot of the trails. It was $40 for 10 days or $80 for the year. He's there so much he registered for the year. Usually its easier to get to an ATV or snowmobile accident because mostly they are on improved trails. Hikers are usually way up in the hills, and in some cases, off the trails. There are probably more hikers than snowmobilers or ATV'ers because the initial expense to hike is not several thousand dollars, although the rescue, in most cases, will be more difficult.

There's a thread already that speaks to the costs and proceeds from the Hikesafe program. I don't think enough people take advantage of the card to make more than a small dent in the costs associated with a SAR event.