Gov. Evers proposed budget to hike up fishing, hunting fees

Several changes have been proposed by Governor Tony Ever’s recently unveiled 2025-2027 biennial bill, one of which is increasing Wisconsin residents’ hunting and fishing license fees.

In a nearly 2,000-page budget document titled “Senate Bill 45,” Gov. Evers’s proposal outlines changes to fees posed to Wisconsin anglers and hunters that include increased hunting, fishing, trapping and tagging fees.

Most cost increases detailed by the bill range between $10 and $20, with $40 price hikes seen for bear hunting and wolf harvesting licenses. An annual deer hunt license fee would be increased from $21.25 to $41.25, wild turkey from $12.25 to $22.25, annual fishing from $19.25 to $29.25, and trapping approvals from $19.25 to $39.25.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the last time Wisconsin resident license fees were increased was in 2005.