Consider this: In 1999, the price of a pheasant and quail stamp (the two are combined, not separate stamps) jumped from $22 to an astounding $40. Pheasant hunters were not exactly ecstatic about the costly decision, but they also knew if pheasant hunting was to continue in New Jersey, they had to bite the proverbial bullet. And they did. But there is another side to this coin that I will add -- an entirely personal opinion.

If you took everything I know about high finances, or banking, or investments, and placed that knowledge in a thimble then shook it, it would sound like a BB in a boxcar. I'm no financial wizard, that's for certain. But what do industries like the major airlines or auto manufacturers do when consumers slow their purchasing habits and these corporations consequently need to increase sales?

They lower prices or, in some instances, decrease the rate of interest charged on, say, new car payments. Often, they will do both. In other words, they make their product more affordable and appealing so that more people will purchase it.

The more purchases, the more money they make, despite the fact the profit margin would have been larger had they kept prices at higher levels. But those "per sale" profits don't mean much if no one is buying.

Since New Jersey hiked the price of a pheasant/quail stamp to $40, the number of sales for these stamps has decreased. I can't help but wonder whether DFW officials wouldn't have received more support in the number of upland hunters purchasing stamps, had they decreased the cost of a stamp rather than increased it?

Just a thought to ponder. I'll admit that second-guessing is always easiest from an armchair, as opposed to being in the trenches trying to hammer out a scenario that would salvage a program.

And save the program they did, despite an ever-downward spiral in hunting license sales.

According to Larry Herrighty, chief of the division's Bureau of Wildlife Management, the increased cost of the stamp undoubtedly saved the program. But it wasn't the funds generated by the stamp itself that helped to keep Rockport Game Farm afloat.

"Right now, if you consider the cost of the regular hunting license sold to upland hunters, combined with the cost of the pheasant/quail stamp, we (the division) just about break even. In addition, the folks at the game farm introduced some rather innovative measures that helped reduce that labor-intensive work that goes into rearing the birds. Consequently, we can now get along with fewer employees, due to the implementation of those cost-saving measures," Herrighty said.

According to a spokesperson for the state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), since 1990 when the stamp increased to $40, some 15,405 stamps were sold.

The following year, the downward trend continued with a sale of 12,531 stamps, and in 2001, that figure declined to 12,462. The trend continued and by the 2005 season, a mere 11,532 stamps were sold.

Despite the increase in the cost of a stamp and declining numbers of upland gunners, however, New Jersey continues to do a yeoman's job of keeping our upland heritage going.

Each year, DFW employees at the Rockport Pheasant Farm rear more than 60,000 ringnecks. And some of the best shooting -- at least in my humble opinion -- lies in three of many stocked wildlife management areas (WMAs): the Flatbrook-Roy WMA tract in Sussex County; Assunpink WMA, which lies between New Jersey's central and northern regions, and the Millville WMA, located in Cumberland County.