Columnist Paula Del Giudice: Hunter now play waiting game

Friday, May 15, 1998 | 10:20 a.m.

PAULA DEL GIUDICE has been an outdoors freelance writer, author and photographer for 13 years. Her column appears Wednesdays.

NOW THAT the deadline for applying for big game tags has passed and the Board of Wildlife Commissioners has met to establish quotas and other regulations, all that remains for hunters to do is to stay patient and wait for the arrival of their big game tags in the mail.

The anticipation of drawing a tag adds so much to the experience. At least that is how you feel when you've been lucky enough to draw tags. I'm sure there are those whose mail boxes are filled only with refund checks who feel differently.

So savor these weeks before the mail delivery comes. Plan every moment of your hunt. Mull over every last detail. In a few weeks, you'll know the answer.

Heavy impact

Hunting is more than a traditional American pastime. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife Associated Recreation conducted every five years in conjunction with the U.S. Census Bureau, hunters make considerable economic impacts.

Hunter spending totals have increased by an amazing 78 percent in the five years since the last survey was completed in 1991.

The figures show that hunters' spending has:

* Created a nationwide economic impact of about $61 billion.

* Supported 704,600 million jobs.

* Created household income (salaries and wages) totaling $16.1 billion -- roughtly equivalent to 25 percent of America's entire military payroll.

* Contributed $1.7 billion to federal income taxes, which equates to almost half of the entire federal budget for commerce.

Hunters in Nevada spent over 600,000 total days hunting in 1996. It is estimated that Nevada hunters generated over $118 million in retail sales. Deer hunting alone brings in over $22 million in retail sales.

Though numbers of Nevada hunters are smaller than other states that have a more substantial resource base, these numbers are nothing to sneeze at -- particularly when much of the income that is derived from hunting comes into the rural communities where the better hunting exists.

While economists can only guess at the "ripple" effect, in Nevada it may well bring the total in retail sales each year to more than $200 million.