NH Now Giving Babies Lifetime Hunt-Fish Licenses

Daylen Brickley's mom, grandparents want him to carry on family tradition
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 31, 2015 10:01 AM CDT

New Hampshire's Fish and Game Department is now offering "the best baby gift ever for the outdoors family!"—and 6-month-old Daylen Brickley is the first infant recipient, the AP reports. Thanks to a new state program launched last week, little Daylen now holds a lifetime hunting and fishing "gift certificate," which will enable him to keep up the family tradition in both activities. "The whole family is into hunting and fishing," his mom, Erica, tells the New Hampshire Union Leader. "I think it was only natural to kind of keep it going." For just $300 plus $4.50 in "habitat and agent fees," kids under the age of 1 who take advantage of the Newborn Lifetime Combination Hunting and Fishing License will be able to get their lifetime freshwater-fishing paperwork when they turn 16, followed by their lifetime hunting license once they complete a required safety course, per the department.

An adult annual combo license in the state costs about $46 per year; once a child turns 16, she can get a lifetime combo license, but it costs almost $1,300 (though it decreases with age). Evan Mulholland, legal coordinator for Fish and Game, tells the Union Leader that New Hampshire looked at similar programs in neighboring states after getting requests to offer such a license. The goal: to give kids "one less obstacle to deal with" in pursuing these activities early on, as the paper frames it. There have been complaints about the program, Mulholland says—from parents of toddlers who are too old to qualify for the reduced infant rate. "Maybe there could be another price point under [age] 5, something like that," he tells the Union Leader. "We're going to look at that this year." Daylen's grandfather, meanwhile, tells WMUR the only thing he hasn't figured out is "how I'm gonna put a car seat up in a tree stand." (Idaho gave rifles to kids who won a coyote-killing contest earlier this year.)

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