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DNR: Raise licenses for nonresidents to hunt, fish
A state agency wants to raise $1 million by increasing hunting and fishing license fees for out-of-staters, beginning this summer, but will not likely charge Iowans higher prices for two years.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources recently scrapped a proposal to increase the fees Iowans pay to hunt and fish by 34 percent this year after Gov. Chet Culver and others said to hold off because of the weak economy. Lawmakers discouraged the DNR from trying to raise those fees next year, too.
“The feedback we have is that (next year) will not be a very good year to come forward with a license fee increase," said Ken Herring, conservation and recreation chief of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Many hunting and fishing fees haven't been raised in six years or more, leaving the state trust fund that finances habitat renewal work and fish stocking insolvent, DNR director Richard Leopold said.
Leopold on Friday said the governor is pushing for a $4 million supplemental appropriation from the Legislature to cover current shortfalls in the trust fund. However, the department will face cutbacks in staff, fish-stocking and habitat work next year without cash from higher license fees or another source.
"That is the trade-off," said Leopold, who still hopes for higher fees even for Iowans next year.
Herring is appealing to key lawmakers to raise the fees for out-of-staters now, especially after lawmakers pushed to delay an increase for Iowans for a year or more.
He also asked them to consider allowing the department to raise all license fees on a more regular basis in the future to cover inflation, rather than being forced to ask for large increases every six to eight years.
department is also mulling increasing administrative fees for processing licenses with its online purchasing operation. He didn't say how much higher, but noted the agency is losing $500,000 a year on the system.
<span style="color: #CC0000">Also, the DNR wants lawmakers to allow the agency to issue 12,000 deer licenses to out-of-staters, double the current count.
Most surrounding states don't limit out-of-state hunters, seeing them as tourists, he said.
Many Iowa hunters have opposed such a move, which the DNR has requested for seven years. Leopold said DNR biologists - not state lawmakers - should set license fees and deer quotas, but he isn't optimistic legislators will give them the power.
Rep. Mike May, R-Spirit Lake, said recently that his home county of Dickinson and some other spots don't have as many deer. Letting out-of-staters hunt significantly more would be tough politically, he said.
"Doubling that is a very difficult undertaking and it might affect our deer," May said.
Rep. John Whitaker, D-Hillsboro, said the DNR plan also won't solve problems with access to land on which to hunt. Many acres now are preserves or are owned by farmers who won't let hunters on their ground.
Herring said concerns over out-of-state hunters taking prized bucks away from residents could be allayed by a system that uses license restrictions to spread out hunters, county by county. Currently, out-of-state licenses are spread among 10 Iowa zones, not counties.
"We could distribute the hunters in smaller zones, and across the seasons," Herring told lawmakers in the natural-resources committee meeting. "We have the deer. It's an issue we need to address, and it's not going away."
The added deer licenses for out-of-staters could bring in $2.5 million for the fish and wildlife account, which can't legally be used for other purposes.</span>
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Ron Wyllie
Southwest Iowa IBA Area Representative
rwyllie@iowawhitetail.com