No Title 2385

Supplement to “Tom Baker’s Safari”

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources or is an agency of the Tourism, Arts, and Heritage Cabinet. It receives no general fund state tax dollars, but instead is funded at the state level through the sale of hunting and fishing licenses, boat registration fees, and federally through a portion of federal excise taxes on hunting, shooting, fishing, and boating equipment.

With the money Fish and Wildlife manages, regulates, enforces, and promotes use of all fish and wildlife species, their habitats, public wildlife areas, and waterways for the benefit of public use while keeping safety as the top priority.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife has no age minimum on youth hunting and trapping, and in an effort to attract more youngsters, youth-only hunting seasons have been set aside.

“We eliminated the licensing requirement for kids under the age of 12 and made our hunting education requirements more flexible, and at the time stress safety,” said Jon Gassett, commissioner for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. In some cases, new regulations require the constant presence of an experienced adult with all hunters under 16, and all hunters age 12 and over are required to have a license and to take a hunter education course.

The agency has nearly 500 permanent employees, including conservation officers, wildlife and fisheries biologists, conservation educators, public relations, and customer service.

About one million acres of public land and water are managed by the agency for the benefit of all fish and wildlife species. In addition, it stocks almost five million fish annually in public waters, builds and maintains public boat ramps, shooting ranges, and bank fishing access areas.

For more information on the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources go online to www.kdfwr.state.ky.us
call (800) 858-1549.

To read the Kentucky Living August 2010 feature that goes along with this supplement, go to Tom Baker’s Safari.