Folks,
Wow, I missed a lot on this thread the last few days! There are some great comments... and some not-so-great comments - I doubt if folks from anti-hunting organizations like PETA are this hard on non-resident deer hunters!
The following is some rambling on my part to try to address some of the constructive comments...
Exactly 19% (i.e., "roughly 1/5") of agricultural land in Iowa is owned by non-residents - this figure is from an Iowa State University publication and not made up by me. I did guess that if 19% of ag land is owned by NR, then NR likely own around 20% of all rural Iowa land and that if this is true, than it must also be true that around 20% of the state's deer herd resides on land owned by a NR. Most of this land was purchased for investment purposes related to farming or development and very little of it was purchased for deer hunting.
Iowa has a great deer herd, but it USED TO BE BETTER two decades ago, at least in some respects. Iowa led the nation in number of B&C entries on a per acre basis during the mid 1980's & early 1990's (B&C entries are a good measure of Iowa's MATURE buck harvest). Now, Iowa ranks 5th, heads & shoulders below a state that many of you chastise for their deer management... Illinois. During Iowa's "heyday," the ratio of B&C bucks harvested per total buck harvest was much better than it is today (Iowa's B&C entries have remained relatively unchanged since the early 1990's, while the overall buck harvest has dramatically increased).
When Iowa does further liberalize the number of NR deer tags allotted, most of you will hardly notice a difference. Iowa will not become over-run with a NR behind every tree as some of you would like all of us to believe. What is my proof of this? Iowa has not changed the number of any-sex tags issued to NR's for several years, yet rural land prices have made RECORD jumps during these same years. This is because rural land prices in Iowa are driven by the farm market, not by number of B&C entries. The world will not end as you know it if more NR's are allowed more deer tags!
Pike County, Illinois sure gets a LOT of press on this site - you would never know that there were 70 or 80 other counties in Illinois where B&C whitetails are being tagged in record numbers each year despite dramatic increases in NR deer tags issued.
Despite what any of us do or don't do, the "value" for access to ground where older-aged bucks tread will ONLY INCREASE in the future. If Iowa stopped issuing NR tags altogether tomorrow, this value would continue to increase, at nearly the same pace. Why? Because Iowa loses thousands upon thousands of acres of rural land each year to development and as the saying goes... they are not making any more land. Therefore, as the "supply" of older-aged bucks decreases (due to land conversion), the "demand" can only increase!
Free hunting privileges on another person's private property is not a birth rite! Future generations of Iowans will have to pay to hunt private land not owned by themselves or their relatives. This gradual change is going to take decades but I guarantee it will happen despite what anyone does or does not do on this website. The reason was given in the paragraph above.
Best to all of you! [/quo
Many Many. Pope and Young and B&C go unreported just for the simple reason that people look at the number one producing B&C state and swarm there. I like many folks have several P&Y bucks, No booners yet, unrecorded just for this reason. No need to advertise this state any more.
