I never use to mind all of the little fees that hunters in Illinois got dinged with. However, a few years ago Illinois over hauled the DNR, placing it under the State Police. Then for 2 or 3 years in a row they took several millions of dollars that was brought in by the sale of hunting and fishing licenses and redirected it to a rails-to-trails program where they converted old railroad beds to bike trails and then closed 9 State Parks because they lacked funding. It really irked me off big time. Anyone can use the trails for free, while hunters and fisherman paid for it and still lost public land.

I really like how some State such as WI and a few others do it, a flat yearly fee to gain access to State ground, no matter what your use. That way the bird watch is helping to pay for the ground he is using, as well as the hunter that is using that same ground. I think as hunters, we are footing enough of the bill for everyone else and instead of looking at new taxes aimed at the hunter, they should look at ways to generate money from everyone that uses the resource.