Jerry Brown, of Bend, did not know about the change to Oregon’s pioneer hunting-and-fishing license until he went to pick one up shortly after the start of the new year.

Brown, 76, learned the license from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife for longtime state residents now costs $6 per year. It had been free from 2000 to 2015.

“I thought it was strange after all this time to change it,” he said.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife offers pioneer licenses, good for hunting and fishing, to people age 65 and older and who have lived in Oregon for 50 years.

The new fee will increase the number of paid residents who are licensed hunters and anglers, and that will allow the state to get more federal funding, said Michelle Dennehy, spokeswoman for the agency in Salem.

“Basically, we are trying to get more federal funds, and that is based on paid licenses,” she said.

In 2015, the state had 58,000 residents with pioneer licenses, Dennehy said. People who picked up the free license and then paid for a deer tag, combined angling tag or other additional privilege counted as paid-resident license holders, according to the agency. Those who did not, did not count. For each of these people, the Department of Fish and Wildlife missed out on collecting $14 in federal funds, $7 for sport-fish restoration and $7 for wildlife restoration.

This totaled about $250,000 per year, according to the agency. The amount was expected to keep going up as the population ages and more people become eligible for the pioneer license.

By adding a fee for the license, the Department of Fish and Wildlife hopes to capture more federal money.

“ It is an important revenue stream for the agency,” Dennehy said.

The state has charged a fee for the pioneer licenses before, according to an email from Dennehy. The state established the pioneer license, initially as separate hunting and fishing licenses, in the 1940s after World War II and originally charged 50 cents for each license.

By the 1990s, the state had combined the licenses and had a sliding fee scale based on the age of the purchaser. From 1992 to 1999, the high price for the license was $12.

The current $6 pioneer license comes with a free Columbia River Basin Endorsement, required for anglers fishing for salmon, steelhead and sturgeon in rivers draining into the Columbia River, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The rivers include the Deschutes and John Day, and the endorsement typically costs $9.75.

Dennehy said people purchasing the pioneer license come out ahead despite having to pay a fee for what they used to get for free.

An adult resident who does not qualify for the pioneer license would pay $74.75 for the equivalent in combined licenses and the endorsement, according to the agency.

Brown, the hunter and angler from Bend, said he normally did not buy the endorsement. In recent years, he mainly has fished for trout in Prineville Reservoir and Cultus Lake. He ended up buying the $6 pioneer license, although this will likely be his last year.

“It is still good recreation for me,” he said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7812, ddarling@bendbulletin.com