I watched the videos and took notes over the first 3 parts so that those of you who dislike the commercialization of hunting by the Drury’s and others like them don’t have to watch the videos. Even if you don’t like the Drury’s you should watch the videos, they are not about the Drury’s at all and are very informational.
Part 1.
- Hunting is becoming too focused on hunting the biggest bucks out there. Too many hunting shows and magazines focus only on taking the largest bucks.
-Landowners are no longer allowing many people to hunt on their property.
-Iowa has a rich tradition of quality hunting due to the structure of the seasons. They are not held at the same time and are spread out due to the limited habitat of the state. Seasons are set up this way to allow hunters to share the land because there is not enough habitat to allow multiple seasons at the same time.
Part 2
-DNR tries to manage the herd to a sociological level.This means satisfy hunters wanting a high population of deer and farmers/landowners wanting a low level of deer due to financial hazards.
-Willie Suchy, deer biologist, says that we are around mid 90’s level in the deer population. He says in some areas of the state there are too few and other areas are still too high, but will probably always be high.
-Deer #’s are estimated through harvest totals, aerial surveys, spotlighting, public input, highway kills, and the bow hunter survey. Then there are about 20 management units throughout the state that the quotas are then put into.
-IDNR does compare with other Midwestern states once a year. They have a conference and discuss what works and what doesn’t and try to learn from each other. Iowa is helping with the southeastern corner of Minnesota to improve their herd.
-Depredation tags are issued to landowners with a lot of damage. Someone from the DNR is sent out to inspect the reported damage. Suchy says that about 50% of the reported damage is not actually caused by deer, but by raccoon.
Part 3
-This past season (2011) 10,000 less antlerless tags were sold, due to the fact that hunters were not seeing as many deer so they did not even want to buy the extra tags.
-The above ^ leads to a loss of revenue. However, the DNR stands firm placing resources ahead of revenue. They came into issuing the extra antlerless tags knowing that it would not last, they planned on ending them when the population goes down. The DNR funding has several trusts and federal money coming in and run off of other ways of income than the tags.
- (Next they got into a hot topic here on IW, NR tags) They said that the DNR will always put residents first. They also said that there really isn’t much space for too many NR’s, stating that Iowa is only 2% public land and that residents needs need to come first. They mentioned that the price of NR tags is expensive and that it goes against the North American model of anyone being able to hunt a little bit, but that is part of the way that Iowa protects its quality of hunting.
-NRLO’s do pay taxes on their property, but in 2005 the Reaffirmation Act passed by Congress made it so the that the state could manage landowners differently, hence NRLO’s still can’t buy an anysex tag every year. Yes, NRLO’s pay tax’s but none of those tax dollars go towards natural resources in the state, while residents money does.
-Suchy says that in a 2008 study that Iowa had about 5-8% of its hunters being NR’s, about the same as Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri. Iowa’s resources, where the main population of deer is very limited, except in the extreme northeast and southern parts.
-NRLO’s are allowed a tag every year, an antlerless tags.
-NRLO’s can buy an antlerless tag for shotgun and party hunt in Iowa and shoot a buck, every year. The rule is though that in order for the NRLO to shoot that buck it must be taken on their property and the property must be a minimum of 2 acres.
*This are just my notes of the first 3 parts, there are 8 total. These are really some great videos and highlight on nearly every subject that is discussed here on IW that seem to come up a lot. A lot of the issues that are fuzzy to mean are made clear here I think.
*Overall, I am very happy with our DNR and the way that they currently run things. The truly seem to put resources before revenue (maybe Brandstad should watch these) and residents before non-residents. Hunting in Iowa is a privilege and is an outstanding place to be, if you’re in the right areas. The DNR is doing a fine job to me.
