Outdoor enthusiasts are feeling the impact of the dramatic spending cuts the state Fish and Game Department began imposing 15 months ago to accommodate declining demand for the West’s most expensive nonresident hunting licenses and tags.

In their presentation on current and future budget prospects, financial analysts cited the effects for the Fish and Game Commission, which will formalize a decision today about pressing lawmakers this winter for a resident license and fee hike.

Existing fees earmarked for upland game and waterfowl habitat improvement are piling up unspent because the department cut back the staff charged with handling those projects.

Nearly 400,000 fewer catchable trout have been produced in hatcheries and stocked in state lakes and reservoirs.

Programs to obtain information needed for game and waterfowl management have been dramatically cut back, game and bird transplanting programs have been halved and weed reduction, trash removal and facilities maintenance has been reduced.

The number of enforcement agents in the field is down more than 5 percent and they are checking 22 percent fewer license holders. Citations are down nearly 5 percent.

Department Director Steve Mealey warned lawmakers last year that the agency would be forced to drastically curtail operations without an infusion of cash - and the only place to get that cash is from residents, who now pay the lowest fees in the West.

The commission decided in August to push for a major increase that would generate $7.6 million from hikes of as much as 65 percent. But realizing broad-based support was needed to win legislative approval, it decided to wait until the 1999 session and use the intervening 16 months to build that support.

This fall, however, Gov. Phil Batt has warned, publicly and privately, that the financial crisis will only worsen as time passes without an injection of cash, calling for approval of an increase during this winter’s session.

The commission meets with Batt in his office today only hours after it takes up the issue.