It looks like New Hampshire hunting has lost its COVID-era boost.

Through Aug. 31, New Hampshire sold 31,266 hunting licenses, according to the Department of Fish and Game. That’s 14% fewer licenses than were sold during the first eight months of 2020 and 2021 when the pandemic sent everybody scurrying outdoors, including would-be hunters.

That COVID bump is gone: The number of licenses sold each year has been slipping since lockdowns ended and so far this year is almost exactly the same as the same period in 2018 and 2019.

The news is a disappointment to Fish and Game, where hunting and fishing licenses are a major source of revenue.

Firearm season for white-tail deer, the most popular hunting season of the year, began Wednesday and runs through the first week of December. Many hunters wait until this season to buy their license. About one-third of the state’s total hunting license sales usually happen between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31, indicating that this year’s final sales figure should be around 48,000.

The pandemic boost was a pleasant surprise to the hunting community, which had seen participation decline steadily for three decades.  But we’re not alone. Hunting has been on the decline throughout the country for many years due to urbanization and competition from other pastimes. The publication Deer Hunting Guide says 7.7% of America’s population had a hunting license in 1960 but just 4.6% had one in 2020.

In New Hampshire, the peak year was 1988, when 97,000 hunting licenses were sold in the state. That is roughly double this year’s tally even though the state population is now 20% higher.

About one-tenth of New Hampshire’s annual hunting licenses are sold to non-residents. That percentage has stayed roughly stable even as the total number of license sales fell.

These figures do not include lifetime hunting licenses, which are available only to state residents.

David Brooks can be reached at dbrooks@cmonitor.com.