A modest $2 bump in New Hampshire fishing license fees has run into an unexpected obstacle: the governor. After the state Department of Fish and Game proposed raising license costs earlier this year, Gov. Kelly Ayotte's office directed the agency to pull the plan back until at least next year.
What makes the reversal striking is that, by the department's own account, the public was on board. Fish and Game held four discussion sessions and described the feedback as "overwhelmingly positive." A summary shared by Executive Director Stephanie Simek and Administrative Assistant Tanya Haskell recorded "full support of increased fees," adding that "most felt it was long overdue and the proposals were not enough of an increase."
The governor's office saw it differently, framing the pause as a question of process rather than price. "Governor Ayotte opposes increasing fees for fishing licenses," wrote John Corbett, a senior advisor to the governor, in an email statement. "Fish and Game clearly didn't adequately consult with stakeholders before bringing forward this proposal, so the Governor directed Fish and Game to pull back these proposed rules."
The numbers in question are small. The plan would have raised season and one-day hunting and fishing licenses by $2 each — a resident fishing license, for instance, would have gone from $43 to $45. With 77,951 resident freshwater fishing licenses sold last year, that 4.6 percent change would have generated about $155,902 in that category alone. Other increases varied: a newborn's lifetime combination license would have jumped to $475, up roughly 58 percent, and the wildlife habitat license fee would have doubled from $2.50 to $5.
For a department that funds itself, those increments add up. New Hampshire Fish and Game is self-funded, meaning it has to raise most of its own revenue through fees, and license sales covered only about a quarter of its expenditures in fiscal year 2025. In the agency's most recent biennial report, Simek warned that the current model was running short. "A revised and sustainable funding model is essential to ensure our long-term capacity to fulfill our mission effectively," she wrote.
That budget pays for far more than stocking trout. It underwrites wildlife conservation, habitat work, search and rescue, research, law enforcement and the upkeep of boat launches and natural areas — the infrastructure recreational anglers use without thinking about who maintains it.
The hunting and angling lobby is uneasy about the delay. The Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation, which had backed the increase, warned that putting it off only deepens the strain on a department already stretched thin.
"They haven't had a substantial [fee] increase in 10 years. They're overdue. They have to get with the times. … We want to make sure [Fish and Game] is open for business," said Fred Bird, the foundation's Eastern states senior manager. He argued New Hampshire is an outlier on cost. "You look across the country at how fees and permits have gone up, and … we are very cheap," Bird said. "We do ourselves a disservice by not keeping up with the times."
The fee for a 16-year-old to buy a lifetime hunting or fishing license is the same today as it was in 2016. Fish and Game says the public sessions "raised several considerations that warranted further evaluation," and for now the proposal is shelved — leaving a self-funded agency to cover rising costs on a decade-old price list, with its anglers seemingly willing to pay more and the governor not yet willing to ask them.
