Under the sportsmen-initiated Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act, every time guns, bows, ammunition or arrows get purchased, a 10 percent federal excise tax gets paid. The feds send the money to the states for use in wildlife-related programs.

Since the law went into effect in 1937, the nation's 50 state wildlife agencies have received more than $12 billion. White-tailed deer, elk, antelope, turkeys and wood ducks, which all hovered near extinction when the program began, now thrive almost everywhere within their historic ranges.

Paul Johansen, assistant wildlife chief for the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, said virtually all of the work that helped restore those species could be traced to Wildlife Restoration Act disbursements.

"The impact has been tremendous," Johansen said. "I believe that one piece of legislation has contributed more to the success of wildlife management than any other act by any other government anywhere else in the world."

In the 75 years since the legislation went into effect, West Virginia has received more than $100 million. The money has been used in just about every wildlife-related program the DNR has undertaken.

"We use it in so many areas, it's easier to say what isn't covered," Johansen said. "For example, we don't use it for law enforcement, land acquisition or capital improvements. Nearly everything else we do, we do at least in part with federal funds."

In the 1930s, when the law was being written, a lot of wildlife work needed to be done. By then, the seemingly limitless supply of wildlife that once graced the country had been reduced to mere remnants.

Sportsmen, concerned that they soon might not be allowed to hunt, got organized. They joined with several of the nation's major firearm manufacturers and asked Congress for help.

That help came when Nevada Sen. Key Pittman and Virginia Rep. A. Willis Robertson co-sponsored a bill that took money from an existing excise tax on firearms and earmarked it for use by state wildlife agencies. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill into law in 1937.

The Pittman-Robertson Act, as it informally came to be known, channels the excise tax money to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which then in turn apportions it to the states based on each state's land area and number of hunting license holders.

The money doesn't come without strings. States must fund their wildlife programs up front. The Fish and Wildlife Service then sends the states 75 cents for each dollar spent.

Scott Warner, the DNR's federal aid coordinator, said roughly 40 percent of the agency's annual operating budget comes from those federal funds. The remaining 60 percent comes from hunting- and fishing-license sales.

"We could not accomplish anything we do today without [the Wildlife Restoration] program," Warner said.

West Virginia's use of the funds has evolved down through the years.

Warner said that in the early years, much of the money was spent to acquire land for public hunting. In the 1970s it funded the state's fledgling hunter safety education program. In the 1980s it helped pay for a major wild turkey study. In the 1990s it contributed to a major grouse study. Since then, it's been used extensively for research on black bears.

DNR officials have also used the money to help expand existing wildlife populations. In 1910, only 1,000 deer existed in the Mountain State. Today that number is close to 1 million. Wild turkeys, once found in only a handful of counties, now thrive statewide. The black bear population, estimated at just 500 in the late 1970s, today numbers more than 12,000.

Federal funding helped fund the DNR's efforts to introduce Canada geese and European wild boars into the state, and to reintroduce fishers and river otters.

"It also assists us in managing wildlife on 1.5 million acres of [public] land, and provides at least some assistance with all of our other wildlife-management programs," Warner added.

Assistant chief Johansen said the Wildlife Restoration program has one other important benefit.

"It also offers up significant protection for funds provided by hunters through their purchases of licenses," he explained. "[The law's language] specifically requires that funds for hunting or fishing licenses be directed only toward programs that benefit wildlife and hunting. If license money gets diverted, the feds cut off their funding."

On several occasions in the late 1980s and early 1990s, state lawmakers tried to divert license money to other state programs. Each time, the prospect of losing $4 million a year in federal funds persuaded them to leave the license money alone.

Seventy-five years after it became law, the Wildlife Restoration Act still receives solid support from conservation groups and hunting equipment manufacturers.

"Industry people are behind it because [agencies] manage resources that benefit sportsmen and cause them to have better experiences when they go hunting," Warner explained. "When hunters are satisfied, they run out and buy more equipment.

"Satisfied hunters also buy more licenses. We get money from their license purchases and from the excise taxes they pay on equipment. We take that money and put it into more wildlife programs, and the cycle starts again. It's a win-win for everyone."

Reach John McCoy at johnmc...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1231.