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Deer Numbers

Bonker is right on his history. I was at the state convention for PF back in that time frame and the DNR had a Q&A session where deer hunting tags for NR got brought up. Then the deer numbers were on the increase and the DNR tagline was"The deer resource is growing and can sustain more NR licenses." I believe they wanted to double the number. Now, this was before NR landownership was brought up as a potential issue, but a few of us cornered the DNR speaker after the session and brought up access issues for residents if they did that. I don't remember who the DNR guy was, but I know he was at or near retirement. After some pointed questions and realizing we weren't going to let him leave till he fessed up, he admitted they knew they would lose some future access for residents AND cripple their main management tool,i.e. resident gun hunters, but THEY NEEDED MORE REVENUE. Another reason we need to lobby for the sales tax increase so the DNR has adequate funding to do their job and can concentrate on the resource and not the revenue!! Also why every year I tell my legislators to support a price increase for RESIDENTS any sex deer tag. For the price of one night out for pizza and beer we could eliminate the DNR's budget problem.
 
Sligh1 said:
Here's my idea.... I'd even write up a rough draft of a petition to be put out there. I could post it on here, etc. I am not an expert on that stuff on how that's done even though I think many on here might be or it being pretty easy. Happy write up something on those, like I gave examples....
1) No more Gov/Celeb tags
2) end to Shed buck season
3) DNR to set tag allocations & quotas
"explanation & deeper discussion on above"
Signed/dated:______________ from this petition. Send out to folks, post, signed be everyone who wanted to sign the petition & submit to DNR & politicians.
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Shift the celebrity tags to NR youth tags, double the number but charge half the price (same revenue).

Definitely end the shed buck season.
 
I am ready and if we start out firm on those bullet points at least they know where we stand! Start a petition, put your points down and I will sign it.

I sent an email in to try to figure out our timeframe, I think it's short but it will take days to get a bunch of posts. We can haggle later on the details.
 
[QUOTE="turkeyriver; After some pointed questions and realizing we weren't going to let him leave till he fessed up, he admitted they knew they would lose some future access for residents AND cripple their main management tool,i.e. resident gun hunters, but THEY NEEDED MORE REVENUE. Another reason we need to lobby for the sales tax increase so the DNR has adequate funding to do their job and can concentrate on the resource and not the revenue!! Also why every year I tell my legislators to support a price increase for RESIDENTS any sex deer tag. For the price of one night out for pizza and beer we could eliminate the DNR's budget problem.[/QUOTE]

This is good stuff here, spot on!
 
turkeyriver said:
Bonker is right on his history. I was at the state convention for PF back in that time frame and the DNR had a Q&A session where deer hunting tags for NR got brought up. Then the deer numbers were on the increase and the DNR tagline was"The deer resource is growing and can sustain more NR licenses." I believe they wanted to double the number. Now, this was before NR landownership was brought up as a potential issue, but a few of us cornered the DNR speaker after the session and brought up access issues for residents if they did that. I don't remember who the DNR guy was, but I know he was at or near retirement. After some pointed questions and realizing we weren't going to let him leave till he fessed up, he admitted they knew they would lose some future access for residents AND cripple their main management tool,i.e. resident gun hunters, but THEY NEEDED MORE REVENUE. Another reason we need to lobby for the sales tax increase so the DNR has adequate funding to do their job and can concentrate on the resource and not the revenue!! Also why every year I tell my legislators to support a price increase for RESIDENTS any sex deer tag. For the price of one night out for pizza and beer we could eliminate the DNR's budget problem.
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Good stuff here!
 
Hey, looks like Tracy already put together a letter, looks good, just what we needed. Take the bull by the horns!

It's in the regular Iowa Whitetail Forum!
 
I think I need to clarify my point here. The DNR should NOT have the last word on all license quotas, since the DNR director is appointed by the Gov. and in the name of economic growth and revenue, God only knows where the Gov. will steer things. The DNR SHOULD have the last word on doe tag numbers to manage the population and on season lengths and limits.
 
Fishbonker said:
At that particular time the DNR wanted to increase NR tags to an almost unlimited number, NRLOs could get as many tags as RLO. They also wanted transferable tags. Bottom line it was all about the buck$ not the biology, not the resident hunters, not the Iowa traditions just the greed of the governor who appoints the Director of the DNR who gave his subordinates their marching orders. The only reason they (Director of the DNR and the governor) didn't get their way was our elected officials said no way, we will remain in control of the quotas. I really don't think we want the DNR to be the final say because we have no recourse. In this instance the government worked as it should with checks and balances.

I was not a bone fide member of that committee but attended all the meetings. It was quite contentious at times. You had the "good guys" from the DNR bumping heads with the "bad guys" from the DNR, at the peril of losing their jobs. You had the IBA bumping heads with FB and a couple of other groups. Randy Taylor was the IBA rep. I've known Randy a number of years. I have never seen him get angry, but I did see his face get a little red at times.

IIRC, fall of 2008 into spring of 2009.
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Reread this paragraph, I am following you now. So, how would you change Tracy's letter?
 
EXACTLY!!!! How do you make one letter or petition address ALL the issues and send it to ALL the people involved in the decision making and get any results. Personally, I don't think you can. If the DNR didn't need to make quota decisions based on money, you could depend on them to do the "right" thing for the deer herd. As long as politicians have a hand in it, special interests, and again; money will be the main driver. In my humble opinion, getting the sustainable funding in the form of a sales tax increase is the only way to begin to unravel the knots that form whenever you talk about deer management. Narrow your focus and talk to you senators and representatives. Put yourself in a politician's shoes. If you get a petition asking for several things at once, you can't begin to take action. But get a petition aimed at ONE specific thing and you can focus on it.
 
And by the way, that sustainable funding goes to way more than the DNR. Habitat will be a big winner thru REAP funding and water quality projects, which just so happen to have ground cover of various sorts included!
 
turkeyriver said:
And by the way, that sustainable funding goes to way more than the DNR. Habitat will be a big winner thru REAP funding and water quality projects, which just so happen to have ground cover of various sorts included!
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I love this statement, you make sense to me how do we tie it together?

I say we jump over to the Iowa Whitetail Conference where everyone reads everything and go from there.

I like a new post started by Tracy because it felt like action. Can one of you guys do the same and let's try to hash out some action steps.
 
turkeyriver said:
After some pointed questions and realizing we weren't going to let him leave till he fessed up, he admitted they knew they would lose some future access for residents AND cripple their main management tool,i.e. resident gun hunters, but THEY NEEDED MORE REVENUE. Another reason we need to lobby for the sales tax increase so the DNR has adequate funding to do their job and can concentrate on the resource and not the revenue!!
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I support a state sales tax increase to help support the DNR!
 
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How about
1. switch the celebrity tags to NR military or NR Youth.
2. have the DNR come up with a Land Management Program that land owners could enroll in that would adjust quotas to health numbers. Kind of like CRP programs for deer.
3. set restrictions on antler sizes (14" inside spread or outsides its ears)
4. do away with late season antler-less.
 
Many of you know me; some don’t and more probably wished they didn’t know me. For the last several years I’ve done some of the legislative work for the IBA. I’ll try to answer some questions. This post started off on the deer number problem and has gained several legs(subjects)

It’s quite clear to all that the DNR has lost the ability to regulate deer numbers. Our Gov. has taken that from them. A farmers group has his ear and we have made to head way in getting his attention. This is a problem that the bowhunters can’t do by themselves. This effort will take everyone that has ever bought a deer tag.

Most of you reading this are the hardcore deer hunters and you aren’t the problem. I recently sent out a mass email asking; what are your three main natural resource concerns heading into this legislative session. From the number of responses I got back there doesn’t seem to be any concerns or problems. Now I start my rant.

What we have is a large percentage of people that are willing to sit on their a** and let someone else take care of the problem for them. Most people never get up in arms until it’s too late, until we have something very dear to us taken away. Everyone one of us have friends that will never lift a finger, cause it won’t make a difference. This is exactly how we got to where we are today. If we sit on our hands another year many area of the state will be down to deer numbers found in the 70’s and 80’s.

I’m putting together a list of people to contact. There will be contact information for the Gov, his personal aide, all members of the legislature, a separate list of House and Senate Natural Resource committee members and the Natural Resource Commission.

I promise you one email or phone call won’t cut it. You have to stay on them, be very polite and respectful but STAY on them.

More importantly is to get our lazy friends involved.
 
Thanks for chiming in here Randy. Everyone that has posted an idea here is on the right track. But like Randy said, "WE NEED NUMBERS!" As the legislative session approaches, everyone should send all the letters and emails they can. Randy informed me that the sales tax increase that I wanted to focus on is pretty much dead on arrival. The Gov. would never raise taxes. So focus on the doe tags and let them hear you. Just as important, get someone else to write and/or call. Ten years ago my representative told me that most votes he makes, he has had no calls on. A couple calls on an issue gets his attention, and more than 10 calls on one side, probably makes his vote choice for him!
 
I agree TR (except on the deer issues)

I've sat in on a few of the "townhouse" meeting with the stache, and he is pretty solid on his views of hunting, deer numbers, and farmer influence, etc.

I write emails to these people constantly, and sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who gives a rats ass.

Plain and simple... the number of people that actually care about Iowa's deer herd is miniscule at best. Like Randy said, most people are reactive and not proactive.

A well written letter or petition written by someone and then signed by hundreds of sportsman is probably a better avenue to explore. Let's face it, the majority of hunters will not take the time to make a call or send a email.

In all honesty, I'm not so sure that most hunters even know the in and outs of how the state and it's deer numbers are run or regulated.

There aren't many cut and dry solutions out there, but damn it would be nice if there was.
 
Plain and simple... the number of people that actually care about Iowa's deer herd is miniscule at best. Like Randy said, most people are reactive and not proactive.
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Plain and simple... hunters in Iowa are a small percentage of the populous.

It will be an uphill battle to see change in DSM, with better odds of focusing effort on getting hunters to stop buying and filling tags, IMO. From the grumbling I've been hearing, some deer hunters are poised to quit anyways.
 
Lets face it guys we live in a time where money talks, and that is exactly how you implement change. The first step is to develop common goals that even the most uninformed outdoors men will get behind.

The problem is a lot of hunters are divided on the deer numbers debate, be it because of where they live, or ties they have to the farming industry, so to try and unite everyone under this banter is not going to get you very far.

If you take the one thing most hunters dream about (Big Bucks) and make it the pivot point of all other conversations then you would have a cause most hunters/outdoors-men would flock to.

We need an organization like the NRA, but geared more towards our passions for the outdoors and chasing trophy whitetail. Why is the NRA so successful, because they have a large base united under one core belief (the right to bear arms). After doing a little research I found a Iowa Whitetail Forever site, but it doesn't seem like they are too active being there last update was 2011. Is there any organization like this that we can get behind or is the time right for someone to start one? If so that is where we should start.
 
Good thoughts but the NRA is backed by the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, a document that outlines the right to bear arms. Unfortunately there is no legal parameter outlining deer numbers and the right to pursue 150"+ bucks.
 
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