I have no problem with CRP other than what's already been said. If you take money from the gov't, you should not be able to lease it out for profit. It's contrary to the original impetus of the program ---> to improve the quality of hunting for all.
The earlier statement made about hunting becoming a rich man's sport rings true, but we should be vigilant to make sure it never becomes the rule. That is why I joined the IBA in the first place, to protect hunting for the common man. CRP is a double edged sword. It creates habitat for game and improves the quality of the hunt, but it also allows people to buy ground and lock it up and away from the common hunter. It is not too much to ask that leasing at least be forbidden if you take a gov't handout.
Owning your own land is a dream that every hunter shares. Being a true steward of that land however is much less a reality than many of us like to believe. If you can harvest enough deer from your property to maintain a healthy and natural balance in your area, than you are doing right and deserve many thanks. If however you simply create a doe refuge and hunt mainly horns, you are a poor steward indeed. Many landowners also GROSSLY underestimate the number of does they need to harvest each year in order to maintain that delicate balance.
Unfortunately this is what I see more often than not. Guys that get together and purchase a couple hundred acres and shut out 2-3 times their number in local hunters, just so they can create their sanctuary. Their heart might be in the right place, and they might even come close to culling the herd a year or two... but then the inevitable happens. They simply live too far away, change jobs and move, get older and less active, and then the out of state hunter comes along and waves some big bills under their noses and the smell of money is too hard to pass up. Now we have an even more uncontrolled population, compounded by the CRP that WE ALL paid for, and we still have a couple hundred acres shut off to local hunters that cannot afford to buy access.
The unfortunate thing is that this just reinforces the trend of grouping together to protect what little hunting availability we have. I don't know what the future holds for deer hunting in Iowa. It is a fine line we tread between a landowner's inalienable rights and the rights or privileges of the common man to pursue his passion for the outdoors and perhaps feed his family in the process. I support the State tripling or even quadrupling it's purchase of public hunting ground in order to protect that future.
