ironwood
Active Member
I truly believe NRs got a bad deal with the increases. The IBA had zero to do with that. As a matter of fact they encouraged an increase for residence to help the DNRs budget. It is hard to guess what all the political jockeying around that lead to the NR increase was really all about(only way to get more $). The Governor is said to have been the one that stopped resident tag increases. Bottom line NRs are not represented(Iowans are) and will have to pay what the market will bear. The fight to maintain our public resource is going to get much more organized in coming years as the fiasco of surrounding states adds ammo.
By the way I will never have to worry about access to hunt. To me this is about the resource which could very easily become mismanaged if you lose the labors of the Iowa hunters. All you need to do is create an environment where deer hunting is more headache than worth and you will lose that management work force.
By the way I will never have to worry about access to hunt. To me this is about the resource which could very easily become mismanaged if you lose the labors of the Iowa hunters. All you need to do is create an environment where deer hunting is more headache than worth and you will lose that management work force.
First of all I must agree completely with Paul on the Rights issue. Hunting in Iowa is a privilege, not a right for resident and non-resident alike. I also agree with those who believe that this price increase is not just driven by greed. If revenue were the only issue the State could have raised the same or even more revenue by simply increasing the resident licenses by $2.00 or $3.00. I think there are much deeper considerations involved, such as controlling the hunt a little more. Now having said that let me play devil's advocate a little. " Let's raise the price of the NR licenses to get back at least some of the revenue that we had to cut from the budget. Now next year we can raise the resident licenses just a little and pick up about the same amount of increased revenue. Now that we have the price increase for the NR licenses firmly in place, if we just double the quota to 12,000 or maybe even only 15,000 NR licenses available. With just these three moves we can increase our revenue by $10,000,000.00 or maybe even $12,000,000.00 in just three years." Could this happen, very easily. Should this happen, absolutely NOT. Will this happen, probably not as long as people like the IBA stand up to groups like Friends of Iowa and as long as we sportsmen express out thoughts and feelings politely to our Legislators. After all they are the ones who control the rule book.
Now to move onto those who are saying that this increase is pricing the average guy out of hunting, I have to disagree. While the $554 quite a bit of money it is very much in line with what quality hunting and licenses run in lots of other states. For example I pulled some info for some states Fish and Wildlife sites.
New Mexico
Habitat stamps 9.00
Application fee 12.00
Quality deer tag 355.00
Barbary sheep 372.00
Quality or HD elk 772.00
Ibex 1622.00
Big horn sheep 3172.00
Colorado
Habitat 10.25
Deer 326.00
Pronghorn 326.00
Bull elk 546.00
Mountain goat 1826.00
Big horn sheep 1826.00
Moose 1826.00
Wyoming
Deer 312.00 regular 552.00 special
Elk 577.00 regular 1057.00 special
Moose 1402.00
Big horn sheep 2252.00
Application 14.00
Kentucky
Elk Draw only for Residents (I think) 375.00
Minnesota
Moose resident only 310.00 ( You mean even if I own land in Minnesota I can't hunt moose on my own land at ALL)
These are just a few examples that I found quickly, but I think they point out that these Iowa fees aren't really out of line. I also don't think that only the rich hunt in these states, so the same should apply to Iowa. All of these other states have a quota and a draw system for NR hunters, and charge from $30.00 to as much as $100.00 for preference points with some tags requiring 5 or 6 points or even more. Now I know that some of these hunts would be one in a life time events especially for sheep or goats maybe, but I believe that a trophy white tail is as or even more desirable than elk. If you had a choice would you rather shoot a 190 inch typical white tail or a 320 inch elk? Now be honest!!
Now would paying 5 or 6 hundred dollars for a license change my life style and make me do with out? No, but would I pay that just to hunt in another state? Probably not, but maybe that is because I have lived here in Iowa my whole life and have been kind of spoiled. I did pay $300 for a cow elk license in New Mexico back in 2001 and three times I have paid $280 for bear licenses in Minnesota. I would do another elk hunt some time but like I have said many times I an not a trophy hunter so I probably would not pay $800 for a bull tag. How ever I would definitely pay $300 or even $400 for a cow tag again to fill the freezer with meat that is cheaper than beef and tastes much better. While I won't make light of it, if a hundred dollars is going to make the difference whether you can afford to hunt in Iowa, then I contend that you really can't afford it even at the lower price. Look at it this way 2 bottles of soda per day for 365 days a year @$1.50 each equals $1095.00, and these licenses cost way less than that!!
Now to move onto those who are saying that this increase is pricing the average guy out of hunting, I have to disagree. While the $554 quite a bit of money it is very much in line with what quality hunting and licenses run in lots of other states. For example I pulled some info for some states Fish and Wildlife sites.
New Mexico
Habitat stamps 9.00
Application fee 12.00
Quality deer tag 355.00
Barbary sheep 372.00
Quality or HD elk 772.00
Ibex 1622.00
Big horn sheep 3172.00
Colorado
Habitat 10.25
Deer 326.00
Pronghorn 326.00
Bull elk 546.00
Mountain goat 1826.00
Big horn sheep 1826.00
Moose 1826.00
Wyoming
Deer 312.00 regular 552.00 special
Elk 577.00 regular 1057.00 special
Moose 1402.00
Big horn sheep 2252.00
Application 14.00
Kentucky
Elk Draw only for Residents (I think) 375.00
Minnesota
Moose resident only 310.00 ( You mean even if I own land in Minnesota I can't hunt moose on my own land at ALL)
These are just a few examples that I found quickly, but I think they point out that these Iowa fees aren't really out of line. I also don't think that only the rich hunt in these states, so the same should apply to Iowa. All of these other states have a quota and a draw system for NR hunters, and charge from $30.00 to as much as $100.00 for preference points with some tags requiring 5 or 6 points or even more. Now I know that some of these hunts would be one in a life time events especially for sheep or goats maybe, but I believe that a trophy white tail is as or even more desirable than elk. If you had a choice would you rather shoot a 190 inch typical white tail or a 320 inch elk? Now be honest!!
Now would paying 5 or 6 hundred dollars for a license change my life style and make me do with out? No, but would I pay that just to hunt in another state? Probably not, but maybe that is because I have lived here in Iowa my whole life and have been kind of spoiled. I did pay $300 for a cow elk license in New Mexico back in 2001 and three times I have paid $280 for bear licenses in Minnesota. I would do another elk hunt some time but like I have said many times I an not a trophy hunter so I probably would not pay $800 for a bull tag. How ever I would definitely pay $300 or even $400 for a cow tag again to fill the freezer with meat that is cheaper than beef and tastes much better. While I won't make light of it, if a hundred dollars is going to make the difference whether you can afford to hunt in Iowa, then I contend that you really can't afford it even at the lower price. Look at it this way 2 bottles of soda per day for 365 days a year @$1.50 each equals $1095.00, and these licenses cost way less than that!!
whitetail fanatic
Member
kbnelson3, I strongly disagree with your idea that non resident Iowa landowners should have more rights than any other non resident when it comes to deer hunting in Iowa. By the way, I'm a Wisconsin resident and would love to be able to hunt Iowa every year, but I know if it were that way, the quality would not be there, so I'm happy to get a buck tag once every 3 or 4 years. Look at what dbltree just posted recently. He's right on! Iowa has a great deer herd because they have short gun seasons after the rut and non resident hunting is very restricted. Giving non resident landowners rights to hunt more often or every year would be a sure way to lower the quality of their deer herd. That would cause things to happen that so many who have posted replies here are afraid of. If non resident landowners had special rights for deer hunting in Iowa, there would be a flood of non residents buying up land in the state. Not many non residents want to buy land for deer hunting in Iowa the way it is now because they know they will only be able to get a buck tag once every 3 or 4 years. Nothing agaist non residents owning or buying land in Iowa, I'm just saying that the quality of deer hunting in Iowa will greatly diminish if they do anything to allow more nonresidents to hunt or allow non resident landowners to hunt more often or every year. Just look at Illinois. Sell your land in Iowa and buy some in Illinois if you want to hunt it every year. Oh that's right, Iowa has much better deer hunting though.
At first I was thinking the higher price for non resident Iowa tags would keep a lot of normal people from applying and only the very wealthy would keep applying. The more I think about it though, I'm not so sure. Look at what bowmaker just posted, other states have just as high if not higher prices for some species, and many normal everyday people buy those tags. I think a lot of people who apply for non resident Iowa deer tags are like me in that we only earn an average wage, but we are careful about how we spend our money, save as much as we can, and can find a way to afford an Iowa tag once every few years because we love to hunt mature bucks more than anything else. It will be interesting to see if there is much difference in the number of non residents who apply with the higher price this year.
At first I was thinking the higher price for non resident Iowa tags would keep a lot of normal people from applying and only the very wealthy would keep applying. The more I think about it though, I'm not so sure. Look at what bowmaker just posted, other states have just as high if not higher prices for some species, and many normal everyday people buy those tags. I think a lot of people who apply for non resident Iowa deer tags are like me in that we only earn an average wage, but we are careful about how we spend our money, save as much as we can, and can find a way to afford an Iowa tag once every few years because we love to hunt mature bucks more than anything else. It will be interesting to see if there is much difference in the number of non residents who apply with the higher price this year.
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