States like Idaho and Montana created new rules during the previous 15-20 years to entice more hunters to buy licenses, the economy was much slower wolves were impacting herds, license sales were slow, and many agencies had budget shortfalls. Over the last 5 years wolves have been hunted, the economy has strengthened, more non-resident hunters want licenses, those states have seen tremendous population growth, and a lot of the people moving into those states are hunters. It's not a surprise that sales need slowed to scale back pressure, the first and most popular way to do that is to reduce non-resident pressure or at least make it appear that non-residents have greater restrictions, that keeps the resident's content, but the real gorilla in the room is the increasing resident hunting pressure, eventually residents will likely see greater restrictions. The one potential issue that very well may prevent or at least slow what seems inevitable is the economy, if and when Biden administration policies slow our economy and if people have less extra money to spend, non-resident license sales and non-resident hunting pressure may decrease. Fish and game agencies have budgets, when those budgets aren't supported by non-resident license sales the cost is likely going to go up for resident hunters and fishers! It seems to me the reason Washington hunters and fishers have higher license fees is due to a lower ratio of non-resident license sales compared to the many resident license sales. It's all a matter of supply and demand and agency budgets!
