Fish and Game tells new committee members how divisions, grants and hatcheries support hunting, fishing and search-and-rescue

Representative James Spillane, chair of the House Fish and Game and Marine Resources Committee, opened the orientation by asking department leaders to describe the functions of their divisions and the agency’s priorities.

The department told the committee it manages a broad mix of conservation, licensing and enforcement work that relies heavily on federal grants and long-standing habitat-fee revenue. Kathy Labonte, chief of the business division, said her office manages licensing, accounting, fleet maintenance and federal grant reporting and that the department processes roughly $8 million to $11 million a year in federal grant reimbursements and oversees about 350 license agents statewide.

Randy Curtis, the department’s federal-aid administrator, said federal programs provide a large share of Fish and Game funding. “In most years about 75% of all of that federal revenue comes from just two programs: the wildlife restoration program and the Sport Fish Restoration program,” he told the committee, referring to Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson funding streams.

Division…