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AIRASSAULT

AIRASSAULT

PMA Member
With all of the discussion about the state looking for money I was wondering what other people's thoughts were on this subject.

If they are looking for revenue for the state through hunting resources. I don't see why they can't take each parcel of public hunting land and start putting them into a rotation to have hardwoods selectively harvested every so many years. Almost every piece of public ground I hunt is over grown with big trees and hardly any understory to the point that in the fall/winter you can see several hundred yards through. This would do two things. Create revenue for the state, and, improve quality of hunting for the people using it by allowing new growth and better browse. Maybe they are already doing this in some areas?

Thoughts?
 
They do, do that in some areas but not sure where that money goes.
My "guess" would one a few different places (State Parks Div., Wildlife Div., Forestry Div or the state budget black hole)
 
Airassault, I believe this is done to a small extent. At a bare minimum, it hast been talked about. I can also tell you that if you were to start a paper company, you would be in business! In NE Iowa where the dnr actively manages for grouse by clear cutting edges and cutting aspen for regeneration, a pulp plant would provide some income and also help speed up succession, helping grouse and woodcock even more as it takes several years to become desirable habitat. Cut trees are left instead of removed as they are rarely trees of value for anything other than pulp.
 
I was told that the dnr budget is reduced 1 million dollars this year and 2 million next year. Might be rough.
 
I just saw on the news this morning that the state is going to have a 965 million dollar surplus or something like that. Couldn't some of that extra dough go to the DNR?
 
Who is funding the Clean Water act (or whatever the name is)? It seems to me that the push to encourage buffers near waterways to improve the water quality in Iowa is an attempt to improve pheasant habitat as well. This would be a great thing if it would help bring the pheasant numbers up to where they were back in the 80's and 90's. There were small town hotels packed back then with NR's and I'm sure that was way more beneficial to small town economies than a NR deer hunter. What do you guys think? This would definitely ease the pressure of needing the funds from deer tag sales for R and NR tags.
 
showstopper said:
Who is funding the Clean Water act (or whatever the name is)? It seems to me that the push to encourage buffers near waterways to improve the water quality in Iowa is an attempt to improve pheasant habitat as well. This would be a great thing if it would help bring the pheasant numbers up to where they were back in the 80's and 90's. There were small town hotels packed back then with NR's and I'm sure that was way more beneficial to small town economies than a NR deer hunter. What do you guys think? This would definitely ease the pressure of needing the funds from deer tag sales for R and NR tags.
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I think there should be something that would make it illegal to mow ditches that aren't immediately adjacent to someone's yard. 3/4 of the good pheasant habitat we use to have around here was road ditches.. Now it seems as though all the farmers get bored in the summer and figure they need to pointlessly use up that left over subsidized fuel they've had sitting in their fuel barrels since spring :D So not only are they planting every inch of tillable ground, dozing down acres of trees to get a couple more rows of corn in, mowing their waterways like it's their yard (it's their land, they can do what they want); they now believe it's necessary to mow everything up to the edge of the road that doesn't even belong to them.. literally demolishing thousands of acres of what could have been great wildlife habitat across the state and they wonder why there aren't any pheasants left... it's annoying
 
AIRASSAULT said:
I think there should be something that would make it illegal to mow ditches that aren't immediately adjacent to someone's yard. 3/4 of the good pheasant habitat we use to have around here was road ditches.. Now it seems as though all the farmers get bored in the summer and figure they need to pointlessly use up that left over subsidized fuel they've had sitting in their fuel barrels since spring :D So not only are they planting every inch of tillable ground, dozing down acres of trees to get a couple more rows of corn in, mowing their waterways like it's their yard (it's their land, they can do what they want); they now believe it's necessary to mow everything up to the edge of the road that doesn't even belong to them.. literally demolishing thousands of acres of what could have been great wildlife habitat across the state and they wonder why there aren't any pheasants left... it's annoying
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Yep, when the farmers around me have too much free time, it's never good!
 
AIRASSAULT said:
I think there should be something that would make it illegal to mow ditches that aren't immediately adjacent to someone's yard. 3/4 of the good pheasant habitat we use to have around here was road ditches.. Now it seems as though all the farmers get bored in the summer and figure they need to pointlessly use up that left over subsidized fuel they've had sitting in their fuel barrels since spring :D So not only are they planting every inch of tillable ground, dozing down acres of trees to get a couple more rows of corn in, mowing their waterways like it's their yard (it's their land, they can do what they want); they now believe it's necessary to mow everything up to the edge of the road that doesn't even belong to them.. literally demolishing thousands of acres of what could have been great wildlife habitat across the state and they wonder why there aren't any pheasants left... it's annoying
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There is a law that you can't mow ditches until after July 4th. Seems nobody follows it though. I know this because they wouldn't let us start mowing ditches for the county until then and they gave me the reason why. Keeps grasses for the nesting season.
 
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