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1st Rough Draft of letter I'm sending tonight to LEGISLATURES.....

Sligh1

Sligh1

Administrator
Staff member
I will clean this up, lighten it up a little and make it concise & go over it a few times. I just finished 1st draft. Left out some specific info but this is my draft, will be final product by tonight.....


"Hello
____ and I'm an avid hunter & farmer. These farms are in ____ counties. I let 30+ friends & family hunt my farms that I started buying at the age of 21 - I am now 41. I spend as much time deer hunting as probably anyone you know & I work on these farms everyday. I've also hunted every single one of our neighboring states for many years. PLEASE leave Iowa's deer hunting regulations alone. Please stop adding seasons, new weapons & liberalizing the deer hunting regulations in any way. It's as challenging as it can be already. These Non-Resident Land Owner Bills will specifically do this:
  • Increase land values substantially within 6 months, most like me believe the limited timbered land will go up $1k/acre in 6 months & $2-3k/acre within a couple years.
  • Iowa has 6%-7% timbered acres (ISU data). We have far less than any of our major deer hunting state neighbors. We have the best managed deer herd in the country because it hasn't been "sold out". The age structure & management of the resource is "very good" and other states have decimated their deer hunting - why they all flock here. All of my farms are surrounded by 50% NRLO's who bought here to hunt because their state was sold out & ruined. It would climb to 80-90% very quickly if the laws are changed.
  • The access for the everyday hunter is GONE. The opportunity for new hunters and hunter recruitment will destroyed. New hunters will not hunt when there's no quality land to access.
  • My personal land will not be greatly impacted as I have enough of it. I could make a fortune if these bills past. That alone should make you think very hard on how the residents who could profit off that land are sounding the alarm that we don't want this to happen. We care about our state's fragile resource & the future of hunting over the DOLLAR! I care about the everyday hunter and the new hunters that need a chance to get into this great sport. These bills would be the absolute worst things for that group!
  • 6%-7% timbered acres: https://www.extension.iastate.edu/soils/crop-and-land-use-statewide-data Substantially less than other states. WE NOW HAVE 6 DEER DEER SEASONS! (Youth season, Early Muzzleloader, Archery, Gun 1, Gun 2, Late ML). WE HAVE 6 LEGAL WEAPONS: Shotgun, bow, Muzzleloader, Crossbow late season, Short wall rifles, Pistols, etc. WE HAVE ALMOST 4 MONTHS OF DEER SEASON.... September 15 to January 10. This state has all the seasons, weapons and "opportunities" anyone could ask for. THE CHALLENGE!..... ACCESS TO QUALITY LAND!!!
  • Every resident landowner I know who is like me is friends with their Non-resident Landowner neighbors. We all know they fled their state's failed system. We simply don't want it to go from "half our neighbors are NR's" to "All of our neighbors are NR's" - which it will as the elderly die off and prices go through the roof. We have a tiny amount of habitat VS the demand & please help us defend our own state against those that wish to exploit it and ruin it for the voters & young hunters or everyday hunters.
Please do not pass any of the Non-resident Legislation. Our neighbors have ruined the quality of hunting in their states and we are constantly defending from those that want to exploit this one. Please do not add more weapons, more seasons, etc - it's only going to cause more people to lock up more ground & restrict access. I manage my farms & I'm improving them for hunting each day of the week. I live in the epicenter of this world. I know it inside & out. PLEASE LEAVE OUR DEER REGULATIONS ALONE! Thank you and have a great day!
"Skip" Charles Sligh
1-900-XYZ-1234
 
REMEMBER FOLKS.... We can throw away our "R's" & "D's" in this discussion. To be honest, the gun lobby makes me sick with what they are pushing in Iowa's Deer regulations. SENATOR CELSI (D) out of des moines called me tonight. What a leader and a fighter. This woman gets it. I'd vote for her in a heartbeat. I told her I'm generally on the right side of the isle. I told her I'm sick and tired of many "R's" want to sell our deer hunting out & sell out to the gun lobby who is looking to prop up sagging gun sales, at the detriment of our resource. There's fantastic folks on both sides of the isle & thank you Senator Celsi!!!
I'll copy this over to the other thread debating this. ;)
 
Email sent last night to those that looked to be involved as well as my legislators. Only my senator responded, with a "I have not had a chance to study these".
 
Unfortunately, you kind of call out what IA legislators want. Higher land and property values... This equates to higher taxes, or county and state revenue. Way more $$$ than hunting licenses and tags could ever bring in.

Most of them would be in favor of deer eradication in the state too, if it meant less automobile accidents and crop damage.

I appreciate the intent, and completely alight with it personally, but I believe you may be better off trying a different approach. Voice how this will be detrimental to the state overall, not just Iowa resident hunters.
 
What they don't realize is that it will be an upward bump in land prices initially but after about 10 years when our deer herd has declined dramatically timber prices will then bottom out and worse yet people will eventually log out land to gain some of their money back further worsening the deer herd. I am a young hunter and hunt mainly public ground because its all I have access to. I will be the first to admit there are good opportunities on these grounds if you are willing to put in the effort. However the laws and weapon changes are going in the wrong direction. I have many friends my age that don't hunt and by changing laws and weapons I know will not make them want to hunt, they would just rather sit around and watch tv then hunt. To each their own I have never understood the reasoning. I am a die hard bowhunter and always will be but I see my expectations in the quality of deer going downhill in the future which is sad. I don't need to kill a booner to enjoy a hunt, but it is nice knowing in Iowa if I put in the effort I can usually kill a 140 to 150 inch buck through a season if I put in the effort and time. I cant say that about many other surrounding states.
 
Best of luck. I moved from one sold out state (IL) to another (IN) last year. Both sold out to crossguns and IL sold out it’s NR tags ten years ago. As expected, public land quality has dropped like a rock over these years. Early season pressure is out of control with former gun hunters. Quality sucks now. I travel a five state area for work.......Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota & NE Missouri. I can move to any of these states. I chose Indiana due to the low taxes. Iowa is an option but I don’t expect their deer herd protection can hold out for long term. There’s too many crooked politicians and crossgun special interest groups. If I moved there it would be Murphy’s Law and crossgun legislation would pass the following year. I can just see all the insane party hunters fighting each other in line at Scheel’s to buy out the Ravins! Next the NR limits would end. I really hope you guys can hold them off but all the other states are falling like dominoes. It’s all about money. Really pathetic. I truly hate corrupt politicians.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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Hair&Scales said:
What they don't realize is that it will be an upward bump in land prices initially but after about 10 years when our deer herd has declined dramatically timber prices will then bottom out and worse yet people will eventually log out land to gain some of their money back further worsening the deer herd. I am a young hunter and hunt mainly public ground because its all I have access to. I will be the first to admit there are good opportunities on these grounds if you are willing to put in the effort. However the laws and weapon changes are going in the wrong direction. I have many friends my age that don't hunt and by changing laws and weapons I know will not make them want to hunt, they would just rather sit around and watch tv then hunt. To each their own I have never understood the reasoning. I am a die hard bowhunter and always will be but I see my expectations in the quality of deer going downhill in the future which is sad. I don't need to kill a booner to enjoy a hunt, but it is nice knowing in Iowa if I put in the effort I can usually kill a 140 to 150 inch buck through a season if I put in the effort and time. I cant say that about many other surrounding states.
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That’s amazing to be able to shoot 140-150 inch bucks consistently on public! Congrats
 
Hair&Scales said:
What they don't realize is that it will be an upward bump in land prices initially but after about 10 years when our deer herd has declined dramatically timber prices will then bottom out and worse yet people will eventually log out land to gain some of their money back further worsening the deer herd. I am a young hunter and hunt mainly public ground because its all I have access to. I will be the first to admit there are good opportunities on these grounds if you are willing to put in the effort. However the laws and weapon changes are going in the wrong direction. I have many friends my age that don't hunt and by changing laws and weapons I know will not make them want to hunt, they would just rather sit around and watch tv then hunt. To each their own I have never understood the reasoning. I am a die hard bowhunter and always will be but I see my expectations in the quality of deer going downhill in the future which is sad. I don't need to kill a booner to enjoy a hunt, but it is nice knowing in Iowa if I put in the effort I can usually kill a 140 to 150 inch buck through a season if I put in the effort and time. I cant say that about many other surrounding states.
Click to expand...


There is zero correlation between land prices and timber prices. And more logging would be a huge benefit for the deer herd even today, mature forests don't have as much cover or forage available to support deer.
 
To each their own opinion. You say there is no correlation because land prices are very high right now. But say the average guy that has money in land right now sees timber prices go down, they have a lack of money and need to recoop some of it somehow that leaves them to clearing timber for ag , selling, or logging in my opinion. I agree that some logging benefits wildlife by letting light to the forest floor which increases browse and bedding cover, I get the idea but in Iowa I don't see it having a huge impact as far as forage goes since there is so much ag available again just my opinion only the future will show if timber prices take a dump. Selective logging is a good idea but I have seen instances where people log their entire timber of the "good" trees and you can see the bad impacts on the deer population on their farm, of course numbers may become better someday but the short term it is bad. You can see in the past these changes if you look at crp compared to ag. When ag land prices are high and crop prices are high farmers are more likely to clear land of crp and plant crops and flip side of that when crp pays better than farming you see the opposite.
 
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