Iowabowtech
Active Member
Not at all. Thanks for the informative post and welcome to IW. Ken, I read everything you had to say carefully and I have a few areas of concern.
I'm not sure I agree entirely. While it's true that these types of folks will engage in these activities irregardless, giving them more tools to do it effectively is a fear of mine. Much like putting a crackpipe in front of a junkie. And depending on how the law would be written here, it could give them a pretty good dose of dope. Kinda like winning the lottery for some and here is my reasoning...They have a legitimate excuse for being where they are with the tools of the trade in hand legally. Now who's to say what our particular legislation would look like. Perhaps they would allow certain things and not others but the key point is that once a law is passed, it's likely to get tweaked over time so even if the original regs look good, who knows about the future? It's much easier to make changes once you have a baseline to start with.
On a similar note, I am concerned about fees, licensing and so forth. Why would we want to laden ourselves with that when I contend we can use a dog right now as our current regs are written. I know you have stated that our CO's vary on their stance and I wouldn't argue that may be the case, but I feel that stance is perhaps a showing of scare tactics to disuade people from using dogs in such a way that becomes hunting with them which of course is illegal in Iowa.
I would agree that this may happen in some cases but my guess is those hunters would be the very same ones who would not take the initiative to call in a tracker and pay out a fee or donation so I see no benefit in those cases.
You would be hard pressed to find any contiginous ground where a hunter could travel either of those two distances without trespassing concerns in Iowa. There will certainly be exceptions no doubt but Iowa is the land of fences and this may be my number one concern. Not only that but our parcels are being divided more and more all the time making for a true patchwork of ownerships many of whom break access chains that were previously open. I'm not sure how effective this entire process would be here. I can see however, how it could be effective in areas of the country where large parcels of land are commonplace.
Our regs allow for a hunter to legally step foot onto private ground in pursuit of wounded game. The fact we have this law creates an immediate snag IMO. I don't think there is any way we could maintain that law AND allow tracking because you are in pursuit of wounded game when using the dog. The only way I could see things working would be to eliminate our current allowance to enter private property. And we can't just say keep the dogs on your side of the fence in the event there's no visible blood and continue on alone because there is waaaay to much room for ambiguity and interpretation as to what is an acceptable track to cross with or without a dog. So bottom line, I see the potential for a trespassing disaster OR losing what we already have which is not too shabby if you ask me.
And finally, I am slightly perplexed at the level of concern from UBT to get legislation passed in all states. What is the reason? Is it truly just a love for what you do? If so, I commend you guys for taking action in something you believe in. Many folks here are doing the very same for our state and it's resources and I suppose that is part of the reason for my asking about things in the first place. I just can't help but feel like there's something else going on that involves an industry or money in some fashion. I may be overanalyzing however and I hope you do not take offense if that's the case.
I realize it must appear that I am strongly against this idea but in truth, I haven't entirely made up my mind. I tend to approach new things with extreme caution because I have found over the years that change is not always good. Perhaps this would be one of those cases in which I'm wrong but I must say, I really like our regs in their current form. Not only in regard to this issue, but most other game laws as well. I feel like we've had some wise decision makers in the past who have set the stage for us here in Iowa.
Anyway, thanks again Ken for taking the time to tap out your thoughts and share your expertise. I'll look forward to watching where this goes.
