As of July 1, 2020, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF) was renamed. It now is the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR).
The agency’s mission is to protect Virginia’s wildlife and habitat and promote outdoor recreation, and “we wanted the new name to reflect the wide range of wildlife conservation responsibilities and opportunities that our agency has, from hunting and fishing, to wildlife watching, public lands, boating, and outdoor recreation. It’s simply that our name has now caught up to what we’re doing.”
Existing customers – those with a hunting or fishing license, registered boat, member of Restore the Wild or involved with the agency in other ways, the change likely will have no impact.
Licenses and registrations are still valid with the old DGIF logo, but renewal documents will have the DWR logo.
With the change, “we’re hoping that we can expand our message of enjoying and conserving the outdoors and Virginia’s wildlife to even more residents of the Commonwealth. We want to grow the public’s familiarity with wildlife and everything that we have to offer, creating new generations of Virginians who understand our wildlife and the outdoors, value them, and support conservation efforts as we work to restore the wild.”
The department is mindful of the costs that can be associated with an effort like this, and even before the recent tight budget times, planned to minimize these costs as much as possible by phasing-in the change. Changes to certain things, (for example, signs at offices, the department’s website, law uniforms and vehicle markings, email domains, etc.) will be undertaken initially, while other changes will take place more gradually.
