ElkHunter
Life Member
Over the years I've sat in on a lot of DNR meetings, deer task force, deer advisory, deer depredation and legislative meetings. I don't think people realize how much h*ll the DNR takes over the deer issue. Some they deserve, some they don't and some no matter what they do it isn't right. I heard one DNR person say, if his left butt cheek was being chewed on by the anti deer people and the right cheek by the hunters and if both sides had about the same amount chewed off he knew the deer problem/population was about right. Sad but true, deer in this state are being managed by social carrying capacity not biological capacity and I don't think Iowa is any different than the states surrounding us. I do feel that we are doing a better job than most.
Went at a meeting and had a legislator stand up and ask what DNR was going to do about the deer problem in Hancock Co. He drives by this farm everyday in the winter time and sees 75-100 feeding, so there has to be a deer problem. The only real problem is the farmer has some good cover, corn field that isn't buried under 3 foot of snow and he doesn't allow any hunting. Those 100 deer were probably 50% of the deer in Hancock Co. Everyone has their idea of what the deer herd should look like. You can put FB & insurance companies on one side of the issue, hunters on the other. Somewhere in between is the middle ground that the DNR walks. They manage by counties, but even if the county has about the right amount of deer there will always be hotspots.
I think everyone should attend a deer advisory meeting on see the tremendous pressure being put on the deer herd, it comes from all sides; FB, insurance companies, NRs, NR landowners, hunters, outfitters, and the DNR themselves. It's amazing that we have the great deer hunting that we do.
I'm not here defending the DNR, but I do agree with them most of the time. We have friends within the department and we have those that aren't. If you ever get a chance sit down and talk to the deer biologist, they are incredibly passionate people when it comes to deer and deer hunting. If a biologist was running the DNR a lot of the problems would go away.
Just my two cents.
Went at a meeting and had a legislator stand up and ask what DNR was going to do about the deer problem in Hancock Co. He drives by this farm everyday in the winter time and sees 75-100 feeding, so there has to be a deer problem. The only real problem is the farmer has some good cover, corn field that isn't buried under 3 foot of snow and he doesn't allow any hunting. Those 100 deer were probably 50% of the deer in Hancock Co. Everyone has their idea of what the deer herd should look like. You can put FB & insurance companies on one side of the issue, hunters on the other. Somewhere in between is the middle ground that the DNR walks. They manage by counties, but even if the county has about the right amount of deer there will always be hotspots.
I think everyone should attend a deer advisory meeting on see the tremendous pressure being put on the deer herd, it comes from all sides; FB, insurance companies, NRs, NR landowners, hunters, outfitters, and the DNR themselves. It's amazing that we have the great deer hunting that we do.
I'm not here defending the DNR, but I do agree with them most of the time. We have friends within the department and we have those that aren't. If you ever get a chance sit down and talk to the deer biologist, they are incredibly passionate people when it comes to deer and deer hunting. If a biologist was running the DNR a lot of the problems would go away.
Just my two cents.
