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Legislative Meeting

ElkHunter

ElkHunter

Life Member
Went to a DNR Legislative meeting yesterday.They went though their list of legislative initiatives. They didn't seem to want to answer ?'s in the open session but did stick around for some small group talk.Here's the short list of proposed legislation they want.

Increase non res hunting license by $20

Reduce nonres turkey tag by $20.

Add 1,000 nonres turkey tags.

Add 2,000 nonres any sex deer tags.

Allow DNR to set number of nonres antlerless based on biological information populations.( I think that is political language for unlimited tags )

Allow nonres "holiday" antlerless tag for $50 from 12/24 to 1/2. They may buy them after Dec. 15 if there are antlerless tags left in that county.That was a one year trial run last year, they just want it on the books on permanently.
Most of this stuff has been out for awhile and has been hashed over.

One last piece of legislation not given a # yet and when it does we need to jump all over it with our support.
It will strengthen the hunt and fish license suspenion requirements.This requies that assessed damages be paid in FULL prior to restoring hunting privileges. What happens now is many people make a small payment just before buying license and never make another payment. This should have past last year,but got amended with some mickey mouse piece of legislation and just died. The DRN has a 1/2 million $'s on the books for assessed damages they can't collect.
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There is other legislation at the capitol but these were started by DNR.
 
So if I uderstand this correctly - increasing the NR hunting license by $20 and then decreasing the NR turkey license by $20. I was'nt a math major in college, but according to my math the NR will save a whopping $0.00 on a turkey tag in 2006. But that's ok, there's going to be an additional 1,000 NR turkey tags available - which will add to the already unfilled quotas.

Violators that have not paid fines are allowed to continue to hunt in Iowa?

That's some great thinking - no wonder the DNR is in financial trouble. Dosen't sound like they are getting a whole lot of help from the legislature - but thats understandable, happens in alot of states. Everyones a "biologist" these days.
 
I agree the license issuance to an individual with a portion of unpaid fines is just amazingly stupid.
 
Rob
You know what they say about comedy,"You can't make this stuff up".
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All you have to do is make a payment, and keep on hunting.
 
I understand Elk. Makes you wonder sometimes dosen't it?

We would'nt wanna have it to tough on the violators - that might give the ACLU or Rainbow Coalition a good reason move into Iowa. I can hear them now "What do you mean this guy can't hunt anymore just because he shot 23 pheasants and 3 deer last August and he has'nt paid his fine in full? He paid in part so he would have enough money left to buy more ammunition to kill more pheasants to feed his family and now your telling him he can't hunt?"

In all seriosuness - That is just wrong, plain and simple. Is it just me or is COMMON SENSE becoming a thing of the past.
 
hcsafari, NR turkey tags actually sold out last year . I was one of the few that didn't get one.

Tim
 
PYBucks - The only reason you did'nt draw a NR Turkey tag had to be becuase you applied for a Zone 4 tag. If you put in for another Zone you should have drawn as none of them met their quotas.

According to last year's numbers the only Zone in Iowa to fill it's quota was Zone 4 (which actually met the quota for all 3 season available to NR's).

In Zones 5,6 and 7 the quota was 1,098 and the number of applicants was only 771. That left 327 unfilled NR turkey tags in Iowa for 2004.

I have been watching these numbers pretty closely for the past few years and not once since raising the NR fee has the state met it's quota.

You can look for yourself on the IDNR website.

Furthermore - if I was a resident and turkey hunted in Zone 4 - I'd be a bit upset at the proposal listed above. By not lowering the NR turkey tag fee, but inreasing the tag allottment by 1,000 tags - where do you think the additional pressure will be?
 
Hcsafari, I put in for zone 4. I ended up buying a left over ML only tag. I also know most of the left-over tags got bought up. I called every couple weeks to see what was left. The best I can remember, by the time season rolled around the only tags left were ML. Those might have sold out as there were very few left when I bought mine.

We hunted for a week and never saw another hunter in our area. I don't think a few additional NR tags are going to put significant pressure on the birds. Plus the residents have a season all to themselves so I don't think they really need to worry. I had a resident ask permission to hunt our land and I said yes. After the season I called him and he said he had so many other places to hunt he never had time to hunt our place.

Tim
 
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