Partner With A Payer
An initiative of the Office of Conservation Investment with state and industry partners
Partner with a Payer strengthens the ties between the people who make a successful conservation partnership work — the manufacturers that pay excise tax through the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration Acts, the state agencies that conserve wildlife and habitat across the country, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Office of Conservation Investment.
Conserving Black Bears in Connecticut with Colt
Visiting a Bear Den with CT DEEP
Colt joined biologists from the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Wildlife and Sportfish Restoration Program to learn about the black bear conservation funded by the 10% and 11% excise tax on the manufacture of firearms and ammunition. Video produced by Colt, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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Agency-Industry Partner Rolodex
Located on the Wildlife Management Institute's Website
Wildlife Management Institute has developed a searchable database for agency and industry partners to enhance connections and improve communications throughout the partnership. Approval is required to access the database. This database was funded by Multistate Conservation Grant F22AP00620.
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Storymap: Tracking the Timberdoodle
An interactive look at how WSFR supports woodcock conservation
The Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration program has funded eight decades of woodcock research, and there's still more to learn. View this ArcGIS Storymap to see how funding from excise taxes on firearms, ammunition and archery equipment supports woodcock conservation across its range.
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A woman holding a bear cub

Field Tours

We invite industry representatives to unforgettable in-the-field experiences that show conservation in action. Join us in the woods with a bear biologist, visit a fish hatchery, help us band wild ducks, or see another of the many ways conservation professionals use excise taxes for critical work.
A craftsman in a firearms manufacturing facility

Facility Tours

We invite state fish and wildlife agency representatives to meet craftspeople and see manufacturing facilities in the industries whose excise taxes fund conservation. Join us in a tacklemaker’s workshop, walk a gunmaker’s factory floor, see a bowyer at work, or visit another of our many partners.

Funding Conservation and Connecting People with Nature
Industry excise taxes have been crucial to American conservation since 1937, when pressure from conservation groups and the public helped pass the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act, known as Pittman-Robertson, followed in 1950 by the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act, known as Dingell-Johnson. Together, these acts provide more than $1 billion a year to support fish and wildlife.
Two young adults on a boat with a striped bass

Restoring species

In the 1970s, populations of the Atlantic striped bass collapsed along the East Coast. State and federal agencies, supported by $57.6 million from excise taxes, helped populations recover in the 1990s. Abundant stripers now create $6.6 billion in economic impact through sport fishing. This is just one of more than 200 species of fish managed with Sport Fish Restoration funds.

Two people hiking in the fall

Maintaining beautiful places

Our country is home to some of the most breathtaking scenery on Earth, and healthy habitats sustain our fish, wildlife, and plants. State agencies use excise tax funds to provide public access and habitat management on over 36 million acres of land in the United States, including thousands of Wildlife Management Areas and many other places for hunting, fishing and boating.

A bull elk

Managing wildlife

In the 1870s, West Virginia’s last native elk disappeared, but in 2015 the state’s Division of Natural Resources reintroduced the species, using more than $6 million from excise taxes to conserve a 10,852-acre property for elk, and to research, tag and transplant the animals. Elk are just one of 500 mammals and birds studied and managed with Wildlife Restoration funds.

A child firing a shotgun under supervision from a Vermont game warden

Teaching tomorrow’s leaders

At the Green Mountain Conservation Camps in Vermont, children learn fishing, archery, shooting, hiking, and canoeing. Game wardens, foresters, and biologists teach them to appreciate fish and wildlife. Excise taxes support this camp, along with more than 2.5 million students who receive hunting or aquatic education across the country every year.

A Colorado Parks and Wildlife employee in a fish hatchery

Together, industry, state and federal partners make conservation happen

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Since 1937, the excise taxes on firearms and ammunition in the Wildlife Restoration Act have been used by state fish and wildlife agencies for public hunting access, hunter education, wildlife research, and new facilities where hunters and shooting athletes can hone their skills.

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Since 1950, the excise taxes on fishing equipment and motorboat fuel in the Sport Fish Restoration Act have been used by state fish and wildlife agencies for public boating and fishing access, fish hatcheries and stocking programs, water quality monitoring, sport fish research and aquatic education.

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Since 1972, the excise taxes on archery equipment in the Wildlife Restoration Act have been used by state fish and wildlife agencies for public hunting access, hunter education, wildlife research, and new facilities where archers can hone their skills.

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Since 1984, the motorboat fuel tax and excise taxes on electric motors, imported yachts, and certain other marine items in the Sport Fish Restoration Act have been used by state fish and wildlife agencies for public boating and fishing access, fish research, aquatic education, pump out stations for recreational boaters and other boating infrastructure.

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For more than 80 years, state agencies have worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conserve wildlife and fisheries and connect people with nature. Across the country, state agencies are on the front lines of conservation, and they use Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration funds as an indispensable part of their budget.