Brandstad meeting in Cresco

[dedgeez]

Well folks, I will fill you in quickly on how the meeting went last night.

Let me tell you that the meeting went poorly and that we as hunters should be ashamed of ourselves. There were around 50 people in attendance and Myself and the 2 other guys that came with me were the only hunters in the room. One of the first comments after he was done speaking was from a Allamakee county farmer that stood up and said " I want to commend you on your opposition of the DNR on lowering the tags". Branstad responded by saying that he will oppose the DNR on this and that dropping the tags will have a major effect on revenue and is not going to happen. The rest of the meeting was Q&A from the audience that had to do with everything from jobs to budget to funding certain programs, etc.

This is what we are up against and he has already made up his mind what he is going to do. We approached him after the meeting and we spoke with him for about 5 minutes about the deer herd and our concern. I explained to him that lowering the tags will not cause a loss in revenue, as they didn't even come close to selling out last year anyway, and he clearly had no idea what I was talking about. He has no idea what is going on with deer in Iowa and frankly I don't think he cares.

I am afraid that this is a lost cause and we need to take another angle on our approach to controlling the regs and the herd. It is going to come down to the individual landowners managing Iowas deer herd and I think it is inevitable that the future of hunting in Iowa is going to be sanctuaries across the state on private farms. We have to take control of our state and manage the herd ourselves, but with the poor hunter representation shown, I doubt this is going to happen. I just have a hard time believing that there are only a handful of us in NE Iowa that actually care about this, and I really hope that todays meetings in Waukon and Elkader and Oelwein are better attended. These meetings are set up in a way that if you had a group of 10 guys that were there for this reason, you could control the meeting.

I personally will continue to fight for all of the rest of the Iowa hunters, but I have a feeling that we are so far outnumbered on this particular issue that we are just chasing our tails.

On a positive note, it shouldnt be hard to find places to hunt with all these farmers that want the deer eradicated :thrwrck:

Have fun filling those doe tags next year guys :way:

 

[Sligh1]

Right on Dedgeez!!! Well done my friend!!
It's too bad more folks aren't doing what you're doing. Which is all I've been hearing, you are CORRECT!
I have land I COULD create a sanctuary and somewhat insulate myself BUT I, like others, care about the whole state and all other hunters and we know what's going on. Showing up and the above post is spot on. Folks better do something, it's not looking good BUT it sure doesn't help when they hear crickets from folks BUT the websites are full of folks complaining.

 

[Thinkin Rut]

This is what we are up against and he has already made up his mind what he is going to do.

This might rub some people wrong but, give the SOB's what they want. Buy those doe tags...and fill them, every stinking one. Make Iowa the most undesirable place to hunt whitetails in the lower 48. Send the Drurys and anyone else exploiting deer hunting packing. Kick the small towns economy's in the teeth. Piss off the farmers that are getting big money to lease their ground for hunting and get them on our side. It wouldn't take too long and the DNR would be working a little harder to get their point across. Start the cycle over and we may be stronger on the other side. This is what they want and this is what they are going to get no matter how long it takes. That may be the only way they will learn.

 

[dedgeez]

This might rub some people wrong but, give the SOB's what they want. Buy those doe tags...and fill them, every stinking one. Make Iowa the most undesirable place to hunt whitetails in the lower 48. Send the Drurys and anyone else exploiting deer hunting packing. Kick the small towns economy's in the teeth. Piss off the farmers that are getting big money to lease their ground for hunting and get them on our side. It wouldn't take too long and the DNR would be working a little harder to get their point across. Start the cycle over and we may be stronger on the other side. This is what they want and this is what they are going to get no matter how long it takes. That may be the only way they will learn.

The problem is, it's not THEY, it's him. The governor is the one who is opposing this and he is backed by the FB who would be ecstatic if there werent any deer. And honestly I don't think Ol Branstad would care either. We would only be hurting ourselves and our future generations. I truly believe that you havent heard the last from the DNR. They know what is good for our herd and what our carrying capacity is, and I believe they will fight hard to manage it correctly. If not, well, then we'll have to manage it ourselves. I have heard a bunch of guys say, "well lets just buy all the doe tags and not fill em" or " even if I don't shoot a doe and fill my tag, I report that I did". Neither one of these makes sense to me. If we buy all the tags we are giving him the revenue he wants and he will just keep allowing for more and more tags. If you have a tag and don't fill it, but report that you did you are just adding to the Total harvest numbers and it will in turn show higher success rates and higher deer numbers, which will skew the results and make the DNR think that there are more deer than we actually have. I don't have the answer, and I wish I did. All I can say is I will manage the farms that I hunt and keep the deer levels high. I will not harvest many does, and hope they disperse to other farms to supplement the area. I will do my damnest to inform other hunters and farmers about the situation and what we need to do. And I will continue to try to represent the hunting community. If I have to turn the farms I hunt into sanctuaries than so be it. Some may call me selfish, but I am starting to feel like it's time to quit relying on our elected officials to get anything done and take matters into our own hands. Son of a ..... this is frustrating. Oh well, the sun will come up again tomorrow.

 

[teeroy]

man, i hope we get a decent candidate in the next election

 

[jjohnson]

Same story here in Waukon today. 99.9% of the meeting was about school, jobs, etc. And then a farmer stood up and basically said we need to kill more deer. They are ruining the crops and the timber. Branstad loved this and said it's ridiculus for the DNR to lower the tags because of loss of revenue and vehicle accidents. There may have been 3 hunters in the room and we all immediately raised our hands. Well folks we only have time for one more question and that was it.

I agree dedgeez his mind is made up. Things are not going to change. We'll see what they say when their revenue doesn't exist along with the deer herd.

 

[moosehunter]

It's a kick in the azz when your voice get's drowned out by dollar bills supplied by FB and others. I don't know how you counter that except with more dollars. But my guess is that there are more dollars on thier side than ours.

 

[Sligh1]

My frustration with this will probably be "ending" soon. I've done what I can, I've posted, called, networked, etc. I posted all the contact info a guy could need. If folks do nothing, you have only yourself to blame & as of now- they ain't hearing from YOU! Like I said, I'll be fine, I'll manage my farm the way I want, this really isn't affecting me BUT is affecting hundreds I KNOW personally and THOUSANDS I don't know. I've done what I can. My efforts are the opposite of selfish because I can over-ride this by making my own choices on my land and not listening to these CLOWNS that want every deer dead- I'm a vast minority though. Up to you fellas. Like I've said a 100x now, don't be complaining on here if you sat on your butt and didn't attend, call, email, etc. Good luck!

 

[risto2351]

Same story here in Waukon today. 99.9% of the meeting was about school, jobs, etc. And then a farmer stood up and basically said we need to kill more deer. They are ruining the crops and the timber. Branstad loved this and said it's ridiculus for the DNR to lower the tags because of loss of revenue and vehicle accidents. There may have been 3 hunters in the room and we all immediately raised our hands. Well folks we only have time for one more question and that was it.

I agree dedgeez his mind is made up. Things are not going to change. We'll see what they say when their revenue doesn't exist along with the deer herd.

How many hunters attended in the two meetings up there?

If there is not a united front then nothing will get done.
More and more will get taken away and then the hunter will ask why?

Just saying need voices to get heard.

 

[iowabruce]

This might rub some people wrong but, give the SOB's what they want. Buy those doe tags...and fill them, every stinking one. Make Iowa the most undesirable place to hunt whitetails in the lower 48. Send the Drurys and anyone else exploiting deer hunting packing. Kick the small towns economy's in the teeth. Piss off the farmers that are getting big money to lease their ground for hunting and get them on our side. It wouldn't take too long and the DNR would be working a little harder to get their point across. Start the cycle over and we may be stronger on the other side. This is what they want and this is what they are going to get no matter how long it takes. That may be the only way they will learn.

Ill buy aS many tags as I can .....Delaware county is way down in numbers. The dam is leaking on This problem and I fear a breach (Delhi)