Fishbonker
Life Member
The Committee met again today. The depredation program took up the morning session. The conclusions of the committee were that it is a good program but needs more funding. The DNR currently has 5 wildlife depredation program staff up from 2. The 3 new staff are on temporary loan from other DNR departments and these temporary staff need to have their FTEs turned over to the depredation program. The committee also suggested an increase in the HUSH program with funding from others sources than hunter licenses. They also suggested an increase in producer awareness through small meetings and literature. The committee suggested a website list of the producers with depredation tags and hunters willing to kill does so hunters and producers can get together. Some method needs to be established to determine where deer sanctuaries are.
Some of the things I learned today about the program. 60-65% of depredation farms are next to a sanctuary, either private or pubic meaning the producer losing crop have deer coming on their ground from either a park, refuge or public ground or a piece of private ground that is under hunted for what ever reason. Depredation tags that are reassigned from the producer to a hunter have a 60% success rate. Landowner depredation tags are different from the hunter depredation tags. The landowner tags are $2.00 each and hunter tags reassigned by producers are $12.00. The hunter does not need to purchase a $27.00 first doe tag, I can’t remember if they have to purchase an either sex tag. Tags are good for the season the hunter requests but good management dictates the producer try to spread out the hunters over all seasons. Shooting permits are different than depredation permits. There are 400 producers enrolled in the depredation program this year. The tags are good on land adjoining (public or private) the producers land as long as the hunter has permission. Depredation tags are on top of what ever the county quota is. A minimum of 5 tags are given to a producer and they are given in multiple of 5s. I don’t think anybody asked what the average number of tags given was. Ground that is leased for hunting is ineligible for depredation permits. The depredation specialists do not track this. They may ask the question but don’t follow up unless there is a reason to do so.
The early afternoon session was dedicated to car/deer collisions (CDCs). To me it looked like CDCs have leveled off in terms of miles driven, but the raw number of CDCs have gone up. Iowa is one of the cheapest States to have car insurance and one of the least expensive places to get your car fixed. There were 12 deaths last year from CDC’s and I think 10 of those were on motorcycles and I believe the vast majority were not wearing helmets. Through improved mapping of the accidents deer sanctuaries are starting to be identified.
Suggestions from the Committee include making sure all states are using the same data sets for ease of comparison. Limit distraction, lower speed limits in high CDC’s and have a CDC crash summit yearly.
The late afternoon session is where the wheels came off the bus. I am still pretty angry over what happened next. I don’t want to try to get into fine details but it is quite apparent to me that the committee chair wants an increase in NR tags to bolster his budget. There were votes taken and political maneuvering that quite frankly sickened me. I sat in disbelief when the meeting was over. I felt like I had been kicked in the nads. Here was a gentleman who was playing fast and loose with the truth, as I know it, and potentially doing irreparable harm to the State and the sport I so dearly love.
The only bright spot was Randy Taylor going toe to toe and not backing down from the onslaught. He was backed up by two other members of the committee whose names I don’t know, nor do I know whom they represent.
Another good thing was, as far as I, and perhaps the committee knows, nothing was decided today. What scares me is it looks like the committee chair holds sway over the facilitator and he may brush her aside at the next meeting.
The gallery isn’t allowed to comment and I hope my tongue is healed up before the December meeting from biting it all day today. I’m gonna wear my boots next time. It is gonna get deep.
Budget versus biology. Sad thing.
The ‘Bonker
Some of the things I learned today about the program. 60-65% of depredation farms are next to a sanctuary, either private or pubic meaning the producer losing crop have deer coming on their ground from either a park, refuge or public ground or a piece of private ground that is under hunted for what ever reason. Depredation tags that are reassigned from the producer to a hunter have a 60% success rate. Landowner depredation tags are different from the hunter depredation tags. The landowner tags are $2.00 each and hunter tags reassigned by producers are $12.00. The hunter does not need to purchase a $27.00 first doe tag, I can’t remember if they have to purchase an either sex tag. Tags are good for the season the hunter requests but good management dictates the producer try to spread out the hunters over all seasons. Shooting permits are different than depredation permits. There are 400 producers enrolled in the depredation program this year. The tags are good on land adjoining (public or private) the producers land as long as the hunter has permission. Depredation tags are on top of what ever the county quota is. A minimum of 5 tags are given to a producer and they are given in multiple of 5s. I don’t think anybody asked what the average number of tags given was. Ground that is leased for hunting is ineligible for depredation permits. The depredation specialists do not track this. They may ask the question but don’t follow up unless there is a reason to do so.
The early afternoon session was dedicated to car/deer collisions (CDCs). To me it looked like CDCs have leveled off in terms of miles driven, but the raw number of CDCs have gone up. Iowa is one of the cheapest States to have car insurance and one of the least expensive places to get your car fixed. There were 12 deaths last year from CDC’s and I think 10 of those were on motorcycles and I believe the vast majority were not wearing helmets. Through improved mapping of the accidents deer sanctuaries are starting to be identified.
Suggestions from the Committee include making sure all states are using the same data sets for ease of comparison. Limit distraction, lower speed limits in high CDC’s and have a CDC crash summit yearly.
The late afternoon session is where the wheels came off the bus. I am still pretty angry over what happened next. I don’t want to try to get into fine details but it is quite apparent to me that the committee chair wants an increase in NR tags to bolster his budget. There were votes taken and political maneuvering that quite frankly sickened me. I sat in disbelief when the meeting was over. I felt like I had been kicked in the nads. Here was a gentleman who was playing fast and loose with the truth, as I know it, and potentially doing irreparable harm to the State and the sport I so dearly love.
The only bright spot was Randy Taylor going toe to toe and not backing down from the onslaught. He was backed up by two other members of the committee whose names I don’t know, nor do I know whom they represent.
Another good thing was, as far as I, and perhaps the committee knows, nothing was decided today. What scares me is it looks like the committee chair holds sway over the facilitator and he may brush her aside at the next meeting.
The gallery isn’t allowed to comment and I hope my tongue is healed up before the December meeting from biting it all day today. I’m gonna wear my boots next time. It is gonna get deep.
Budget versus biology. Sad thing.
The ‘Bonker
