I support a fee increase for residents and a decrease for non residents is probably fair. However, there are other ways to raise revenue. such as making the penalties for game law violations stiff... really stiff. Iowa's trespass laws really need to be reworked. In any case, Iowa needs more dollars for the DNR and for wildlife management. No one's going to pay but sportsmen and women. So be it.
O
Ollie
Guest
Sometimes people propose that one way to increase badly needed revenues for state DNR's is from the general tax bases. This may not be such a good idea. When we hunters and fishermen provide the overwhelming funding for the DNR through our licenses as special taxes on sporting equipement, the DNR has to recognize where their funds come from and be responsive to our needs. If significant funding comes from general revenues, then you will see people with unfriendly attitutudes towards outdoor sports demanding input on how the monies are spent. And you can bet they won't want any monies spent on activities/programs that benefit us hunters and fishermen.
W
WHTFANTASIES
Guest
Something i find amusing is all the lets not make hunting a big money issue but it seems as though some of you want to hammer the non resident who just happens to love to hunt good whitetail. Maybe all states should charge the same exact fee for nonresidents hunting licences. Let us not forget we are all part of one great nation. why then do we have to countinuie to segregate based on where we were raised our choose to reside.Buy the way who was the last nonresident to break any of Iowa's current state records. That sdhould put into perspective are inpact on Iowa's herd.
H
horst
Guest
What exactly are we supposed to lower our prices to to be competetive with other states?Its comparing apples and oranges in a lot of places, people come to Iowa for Trophy deer.Why should we compete in price with states that your gonna be lucky to shoot a basket rack 6 pointer in?As far as raising the resident tags, i got a question, how much money do they need from each individual that hunts every year?Right now i have bought a hunting license, fishing license, habitat stamp, fishing stamp, federal duck stamp, state duck stamp, bow license, muzzleloader license, and two paid antlerless licenses.A lotta guys got that all them and a furbearers license on top of that.I easily drop a couple hundred bucks a year to hunt here and have no idea where the moneys going.I do see most of the DNR guys driving new 50,000$ pickups.And I see them paying these guys to come in and clear cut every chunk of state ground they get ahold of so i cant find a place around here to hang a treestand without having someone else sitting 2 trees down from me.And they keep digging these Waterfowl reproduction ponds around here.There must be 2 dozen of em and only 3 hold any water even in a wet year.I know hiring all that heavy equipment isnt cheap to come and dig these dry holes.So again I ask wheres the money all going?If you wanna save a few hundred thousand dollars make em drive two year old trucks and take away there chainsaws.And forget the ponds, they close duck season before any get down this far anyway
T
thehuntingcouple
Guest
First of all I would like to say that I support landowner tags. If there are people out there who do not think they are fair then they should buy some land themselves.
As far as NR tags, I have a hard time feeling sorry for anyone who thinks this is too much money. I hunt a lot of private land...I do not lease it but I do buy gift certificates and such for the landowners to try and secure the land for the following year. I can promise you that I spend over $300 a year easy to get this accomplished. I agree with the point made previously that it is not that much money to be able to hunt a state like Iowa with the reputation for big bucks. If it has to one or the other, either raising resident or nonresident tags I would suggest raising the NR tags and see if the quota is filled, if not then something else can be looked at. (and that would be the quota as it stands today, not an increase in the number of NR tags)
Just another opinion, good luck to everyone in the late season.
T.D.
As far as NR tags, I have a hard time feeling sorry for anyone who thinks this is too much money. I hunt a lot of private land...I do not lease it but I do buy gift certificates and such for the landowners to try and secure the land for the following year. I can promise you that I spend over $300 a year easy to get this accomplished. I agree with the point made previously that it is not that much money to be able to hunt a state like Iowa with the reputation for big bucks. If it has to one or the other, either raising resident or nonresident tags I would suggest raising the NR tags and see if the quota is filled, if not then something else can be looked at. (and that would be the quota as it stands today, not an increase in the number of NR tags)
Just another opinion, good luck to everyone in the late season.
T.D.
Horst
I have to defend the DNR people in my area. I know they are driving a 1998 Ford Ranger, a 1999 Dodge 2500, and a 1999 Ford Crown Vic, all with close to or over 100,000 miles. I know this because our shop services them. None of these vehicles cost the State over $20,000.00 on the State bids. I have never yet seen anyone in a $50,000.00 unit.
I live very close to several hundred acres of state ground and have yet to see them cut a tree. I don't know what happens where you live but here they try to leave the ground in about the same condition, or better, as when it was purchased. I do remember that they did take some walnuts out of a couple state parks, but you could not hang a tree stand there anyway.
You should take a look at DNR site and you might see where some of the money goes. Roads and maintanence eat up a lot of funds. I saw a bid to redo our parks spillway for $87,000.00. Land aquisition takes lots of money when lots of the ground is costing $1000.00 or more an acre, for public hunting. I spend most of my pheasant hunting time on public ground. I didn't really know there was so much public ground arround until my son spent a summer working for the DNR two years ago. Within an hours drive of my house there are literally thousands and thousands of acres of state owner ground, most of which can be hunted for various species. While I'm thinking of it, my son was only paid $5.30 per hour for a maxi of 40 hours. He enjoyed the work so much that often he put in 50 or more hours a week and still couldn't get all the work done.
The last thing I will pick onyou about is your licence fees. By my addition you spend $124.00 for all your hunting licenses. That might seem like a lot until you put it into perpspective. The 4 deer should average 70# of meat each for 280#. Divide that out and you get $0.44 per pound. I'm not saying that it only costs you that, but that is all the state fees cost. Another way to look at is if you took a family to Adventureland for a day you would spend more than you do for your licenses. Your licenses let you hunt starting in September until January 10th. Really quite a bargin if you spend much time in the field.
I don't mean to be critical but I think it is to easy to popoff and blame the DNR for short commings and not look at a much larger picture than our own backyard. I have said it before and will continue to, if we want more and better outdoor experiences we need to stephup with both money and volunteer help or the job can't get done.
I have to defend the DNR people in my area. I know they are driving a 1998 Ford Ranger, a 1999 Dodge 2500, and a 1999 Ford Crown Vic, all with close to or over 100,000 miles. I know this because our shop services them. None of these vehicles cost the State over $20,000.00 on the State bids. I have never yet seen anyone in a $50,000.00 unit.
I live very close to several hundred acres of state ground and have yet to see them cut a tree. I don't know what happens where you live but here they try to leave the ground in about the same condition, or better, as when it was purchased. I do remember that they did take some walnuts out of a couple state parks, but you could not hang a tree stand there anyway.
You should take a look at DNR site and you might see where some of the money goes. Roads and maintanence eat up a lot of funds. I saw a bid to redo our parks spillway for $87,000.00. Land aquisition takes lots of money when lots of the ground is costing $1000.00 or more an acre, for public hunting. I spend most of my pheasant hunting time on public ground. I didn't really know there was so much public ground arround until my son spent a summer working for the DNR two years ago. Within an hours drive of my house there are literally thousands and thousands of acres of state owner ground, most of which can be hunted for various species. While I'm thinking of it, my son was only paid $5.30 per hour for a maxi of 40 hours. He enjoyed the work so much that often he put in 50 or more hours a week and still couldn't get all the work done.
The last thing I will pick onyou about is your licence fees. By my addition you spend $124.00 for all your hunting licenses. That might seem like a lot until you put it into perpspective. The 4 deer should average 70# of meat each for 280#. Divide that out and you get $0.44 per pound. I'm not saying that it only costs you that, but that is all the state fees cost. Another way to look at is if you took a family to Adventureland for a day you would spend more than you do for your licenses. Your licenses let you hunt starting in September until January 10th. Really quite a bargin if you spend much time in the field.
I don't mean to be critical but I think it is to easy to popoff and blame the DNR for short commings and not look at a much larger picture than our own backyard. I have said it before and will continue to, if we want more and better outdoor experiences we need to stephup with both money and volunteer help or the job can't get done.
H
horst
Guest
bowmaker, im not going to argue with you but first your maths a little off, 4 deer tags alone cost 90$, duckstamps alone put me past 124$.
The dnr in my area has bought a lotta land.The first thing they do is cut most if not all of the trees off of it.5 years ago they got a big grove that was real thick and quickly cut over half of it down., they actually drive over a mile back in to cut down several trees along the slough.Every little patch of willows around heres been wiped out.We aint got the size of bucks they do elsewhere in the state so all of our land is turned into pheasant habitat.There must be 50 square miles of public ground around here but damned if theyll let a tree grow on it, a hawk might sit in it and actually eat one of their pheasants or something, anyway thats the reasoning i got when i asked em about all their logging.The examples i gave you are just a few, this happens on any chunk of ground they buy.The trees they do leave you gotta share your stand with 12 other guys and deer wont come anywhere near em.
I dont know what there trucks cost, i was being sarcastic.I really dont mind paying the licence fees, its well worth the money and i hunt every day during the season.My question was if every person in the state that hunts, i dont know how many that is, buys 100$ worth of licenses, plus theyre sticking 8000 non residents a year 300$ to hunt, and thats just deer not even counting the ones that come for pheasant, turkey, etc...Plus the money off of fishing, state campgrounds, etc..How can they be that broke?Like I said I dont wanna argue but theres my look at the bigger picture, if they want to charge me more to hunt thats fine, ill pay it, but id at least like em to leave me a damn tree to sit in
The dnr in my area has bought a lotta land.The first thing they do is cut most if not all of the trees off of it.5 years ago they got a big grove that was real thick and quickly cut over half of it down., they actually drive over a mile back in to cut down several trees along the slough.Every little patch of willows around heres been wiped out.We aint got the size of bucks they do elsewhere in the state so all of our land is turned into pheasant habitat.There must be 50 square miles of public ground around here but damned if theyll let a tree grow on it, a hawk might sit in it and actually eat one of their pheasants or something, anyway thats the reasoning i got when i asked em about all their logging.The examples i gave you are just a few, this happens on any chunk of ground they buy.The trees they do leave you gotta share your stand with 12 other guys and deer wont come anywhere near em.
I dont know what there trucks cost, i was being sarcastic.I really dont mind paying the licence fees, its well worth the money and i hunt every day during the season.My question was if every person in the state that hunts, i dont know how many that is, buys 100$ worth of licenses, plus theyre sticking 8000 non residents a year 300$ to hunt, and thats just deer not even counting the ones that come for pheasant, turkey, etc...Plus the money off of fishing, state campgrounds, etc..How can they be that broke?Like I said I dont wanna argue but theres my look at the bigger picture, if they want to charge me more to hunt thats fine, ill pay it, but id at least like em to leave me a damn tree to sit in
I have to agree with Horst on this one, but mainly on the issue of DNR policy, not what individual CO's are doing. Do we really need to mow all the grass in some of these areas? I can see where it takes a lot of labor to mow something just because it looks good. Then this same dept. promotes wildlife habitat? How about the 20 acres you just mowed? And the timber issue; promoting habitat again I suppose by cutting down trees? These are just a few of the issues,the list is much longer. It's a matter of how the funds are managed and how "fat" the dept. can be in some areas. Enforcement suffers due to some of the other costly, bone-headed decisions.
Hey guys!
All I was trying to point out is that the DNR is not the bad guy. As individuals we look at what we spend as being a lot of money, when in reality we spend a lot more on things we never think of. I personally think that an increase in licenses fees is proablly in order, if we want to keep pace with every thing. Horst , my math was off because I forgot the Federal Duck Stamp, but that isn't the issue. If you just play with some numbers you can get a better feel of the enormity of the big picture.
For a resident to hunt deer you must spend,
reg lic= $17.50
Habitat=$8.50
Deer tag=$26.00
Total= $52.00
I think I read somewhere where we had about 160,00 deer hunters. If you run that out you get $8,320,000.00, a lot of money. Now look a 2 DNR employees per county, 99 x 2 =198. If they average $35,000.00 per year that is
$6,930,000.000 also a lot of money. All I want you to see is that all of these licenses fees will only pay for 2 1/2 DNR people per county.
I wish everyone would take the time to look at the Natural Resource Commission part of the DNR page. If you read the summries of the meetings I think you will be amazed at the dollar ammounts they are talking about , I know I was. At the Nov meeting they approved a land purchase near Okaboji for $447,000.000, and that was only one thing.
There are lots of projects and maintainence that require huge sums of money, and our license fees can't cover it all.
I don't always agree with the things the DNR does, but I try to find out why they are doing them. Often it affects things I had never considered, and makes sense afterwards. Horst, if they are cutting timber in your area, maybe it is because there are more pheasant hunters there than deer hunters and they made their wishes known. If we want to change policies we need to make our wishes very clear to the people in power. If the DNR conduct information gathering meetings in your area please try to attend. I attended 3 of these meetings on the deer problems in southern Iowa and they resulted in the extra antleerless season and bonous doe tags that we have now, so don't say they won't listen.
I know this has gotten a little off the original subject, but I really think the DNR does a pretty good job of balancing political, monitary, and social issues dealing with our natural resources.
All I was trying to point out is that the DNR is not the bad guy. As individuals we look at what we spend as being a lot of money, when in reality we spend a lot more on things we never think of. I personally think that an increase in licenses fees is proablly in order, if we want to keep pace with every thing. Horst , my math was off because I forgot the Federal Duck Stamp, but that isn't the issue. If you just play with some numbers you can get a better feel of the enormity of the big picture.
For a resident to hunt deer you must spend,
reg lic= $17.50
Habitat=$8.50
Deer tag=$26.00
Total= $52.00
I think I read somewhere where we had about 160,00 deer hunters. If you run that out you get $8,320,000.00, a lot of money. Now look a 2 DNR employees per county, 99 x 2 =198. If they average $35,000.00 per year that is
$6,930,000.000 also a lot of money. All I want you to see is that all of these licenses fees will only pay for 2 1/2 DNR people per county.
I wish everyone would take the time to look at the Natural Resource Commission part of the DNR page. If you read the summries of the meetings I think you will be amazed at the dollar ammounts they are talking about , I know I was. At the Nov meeting they approved a land purchase near Okaboji for $447,000.000, and that was only one thing.
There are lots of projects and maintainence that require huge sums of money, and our license fees can't cover it all.
I don't always agree with the things the DNR does, but I try to find out why they are doing them. Often it affects things I had never considered, and makes sense afterwards. Horst, if they are cutting timber in your area, maybe it is because there are more pheasant hunters there than deer hunters and they made their wishes known. If we want to change policies we need to make our wishes very clear to the people in power. If the DNR conduct information gathering meetings in your area please try to attend. I attended 3 of these meetings on the deer problems in southern Iowa and they resulted in the extra antleerless season and bonous doe tags that we have now, so don't say they won't listen.
I know this has gotten a little off the original subject, but I really think the DNR does a pretty good job of balancing political, monitary, and social issues dealing with our natural resources.
B
BARRY
Guest
In the last year or so, I read in the Register when the deer population gets so large that insurance companies start screaming about all the deer/auto accidents and when personal injury/deaths resulting from car/deer accients happen, then the legislature will make changes to reduce the deer population. That was before CWD was in the spotlight. What would happen if NR license fees increased and resident licenses decreased slightly and the quota for resident licenses increased ?