This has already played out in Illinois and they can't turn back despite the damage to their deer herd and the loss of access for resident hunters. Here is an article published several years ago in an Outdoor Life magazine from Outdoor writer Don Higgins who resides in Illinois:
States Should Limit
Nonresident Hunters
By Don Higgins
"Tim Fulmer remembers the days when he freely walked the woods near his home in Pike County, Ill. Hunting, fishing and trapping were a part of life, and Fulmer was lucky enough to live in an outdoorsman's paradise where these interests could be carried out to their fullest.
Around 1990 changes started taking place that eventually ruined and even ended the outdoor experience for many Pike County residents. Word of the big whitetail bucks being taken by area hunters spread. This in turn caused hunters outside Illinois to begin showing up to try their luck at
tagging a giant whitetail buck. The influx of nonresidents began slowly, but as each season passed, the trend grew, spawning a new industry in the area: outfitting. In fact, from 1991 through 1996, the number of nonresident archery deer hunters rose more than 400 percent in Illinois and more than doubled again between 1996 and 2000. Many of these hunters ended up in Pike. Before the 1990s had ended, the county stood as the perfect example of why states must limit nonresidents.
Vital Management Tool
One of the most important methods of wildlife management is regulating harvest by controlling the number of hunters. If for no other reason, nonresidents need to be limited as a management tool to ensure the proper harvest of game. Once again, Pike County serves as an example of how things can go wrong. Throngs of nonresident hunters show up there in search of bucks with large antlers. Many of these hunters aren't interested in taking does. Tim Fulmer has seen the result of this practice firsthand. He estimates the buck-to-doe ratio in his area to be at least 20 does for every antlered buck. How can the blame for this situation be traced to nonresident hunters? It's a matter of access and game selection. The competition for land has spawned a leasing frenzy. Local conservation officers estimate that as much as half of Pike County is commercially leased. Some outfitters have leased property totaling in the tens of thousands of acres. This land is off-limits to all but paying clients. Thus, the does are allowed to live and reproduce in virtual sanctuaries that are closed to local hunters, many of whom would be content to put some venison in the freezer.
Too Little, Too Late
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recognized these problems and in 2001 enacted several regulations to address them. Outfitters are now regulated and must submit a written management plan to the DNR. Nonresident archery deer hunters are now limited to 12,843 tags, the number of nonresident archery permits sold in 2000, the last year of over-the-counter sales. Like many resident whitetail hunters, Tim Fulmer sees this as "too little, too late." The damage has already been done, and these measures won't correct a bad situation. Professional game managers have had virtually no control over large areas for too many years. Besides management problems, unlimited nonresident access creates a host of social concerns. It turns prime hunting locations into playgrounds for the wealthy. Leasing, outfitting and the purchase of land for expensive, exclusive hunting all work to squeeze out the average, local hunter.
A House Divided
Those who oppose limits are often hunters with the financial resources to hunt out of state or people looking to make money from them. Pike County has become a battleground where families now stand divided. Fulmer has a sister and brother-in-law with whom he rarely speaks. They have chosen to lease their land to an outfitter, thus closing it to friends and family. This is not uncommon. I've heard countless stories of divided families and longtime friends turned into enemies. Plenty of hunters have simply given up the sport because they lack a place to hunt. One argument of those who oppose limits is based on their freedoms as Americans. I simply ask, "Freedom to do what?" Freedom to end the outdoor experience for another person in his backyard so that you can show up to hunt for one week a year? What about the rights of the local man working a minimum-wage job who wants to put some meat on the table or introduce his children to the outdoors? Do we want a society where hunting is reserved for the wealthy, as it is in Europe? We owe it to the game we pursue and our fellow hunters to act responsibly. A big part of this responsibility falls to the people who make their homes in the areas we hunt as well as the professional game managers who make the regulations there. Cutting them out of the picture will only hurt wildlife. Limiting nonresident hunters is a necessary regulation with which we can all live."
Since this article was published Illinois has raised their NR tag quotas to over 25,000 and now NR tags are basically over the counter because there are more tags than applicants. Also the percentage of leased land in Pike County is way over 50%. I would bet that you could spend 30 days knocking on doors in Pike county Illinois and never find a place to hunt that you didn't have to pay to access. Then consider that in the last 5 years you hardly hear anything about deer hunting in Illinois because the quality has deminished. Now if you want quality hunting you have to try for Kansas or Iowa. It is too bad that Kansas is slowly following Illinois and making the same mistakes. The residents of Kansas are trying despirately to hold onto what they got but it may be too late. Iowa residents need to be on offense when it comes to stopping NR tag increases. Considering Iowa's limited wildlife habitat and only 2% of Iowa being public land we can't afford any increase in NR tags if we want our children to have any outdoor opportunities in Iowa.
If you read this article and still can't understand why Iowa residents are fighting increased NR tags or NRLO tags then you are too self serving to see what is best for Iowa's deer herd and what is best for the hunting heritage in Iowa. There is no question what will happen if there is any increase in NR tags. Decreased quality and decreased access. Just look at Illinois.
, 19% of Iowa farmland was owned by non-residents in 2002. 2007 numbers show it has increased to 21%. That is about 6.5 Million out of 31 M acres. Again, this is for farmland only, but if recreational ground is close to the same percentage, that is a big number. 
