What’s the Department of Wildlife Resources?
As of July 1, 2020, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF) has been renamed to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR).
Why a name change?
Our mission is to protect Virginia’s wildlife and habitat and promote outdoor recreation. We wanted our 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.
What does our new name mean for you?
If you’re an existing constituent of ours, having bought a hunting or fishing license, registered a boat, signed up for a Restore the Wild membership, or taken advantage of what we have to offer in other ways, this doesn’t affect you much at all. Our traditional constituents who have made the agency what it is today through their contributions can rest assured that this name change does not mean less commitment to them or their passions. (There will be some cool new merch available with our new logo, though!) Your licenses and registrations are still valid with the old DGIF logo, but when you renew, you’ll get a new one with the DWR logo.
What does our new name mean for all of Virginia?
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.
How is DWR minimizing the costs associated with this name change?
The Department is very mindful of the costs that can be associated with an effort like this, and even before the tight budget times that have recently arisen, planned to minimize these costs as much as possible by phasing-in the change. Certain things (for example, signs at offices, the Department website, Law uniforms and vehicle markings, email domains, etc.) will be taken on initially, while other changes will take place more gradually.