Another for WJS and all deerhunters.

[moosehunter]

Thank you Willie for clueing us in on your thoughts and ideas on deer issues. I think it's extremely important to invlove deerhunters in decisions the state makes concerning the deer herd, hunting seasons, rule changes, and any other changes.

Iowawhitetail is an perfect forum for you to use and I hope we can give you useful information. I think is a nice reflection of the way Onecam and the rest of the crew that keeps us all inline, have kept high standards for all the post's. The members here should take some pride that WJS uses this site as a tool.

With all that said, we as deerhunters have to make some intelligent noise with our lawmakers this year. They are under pressure from Farm Bureau and other insurance industry lobbiest to liberalize the deerhunting in Iowa. Most of us don't want that, but something has to give and I'm worried thier big money will win out unless we do our part to be heard. The Iowa Bowhunters Assn can't do it alone. Last year I attended the public video conference and there were only a handful of questions about deerhunting. And this was a statewide video conference. Even one of the moderators was encouraging deerhunters to speak up. He said if they here few questions or complaints they have to assume for the most part everyone is happy.

So help youself out by doing something this year to be heard.

There................I'm done

 

[JNRBRONC]

Good post, Moosehunter.

All I can add is to contact your representatives. You can find their contact info at: Legislators

If you need any more incentive, look at: Lobby list
To be fair, I don't know how many on this list are concerned with DNR issues, but just the sheer number of people lobbying for special interests is sobering.

 

[wjs]

Thank you for your comments! You have hit the nail squarely on the head. If Iowa's hunters don't stick up for themselves (and I mean talking to their state representatives and senators) then the representatives assume that all is going well and will react to the squeaky wheel.

I also encourage everyone to join conservation organizations such as the IBA, Whitetails Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, etc and make your thoughts known.

I will continue to use this forum as a sounding board and to keep you all as informed as I can of the issues that are coming up. I have always valued the input and feel that it is the best way to improve the program. There is wisdom in the counsel of many.

 

[Palmated]

WJS
Thanks for staying in contact with us on this board. I have a suggestion for you. It pertains to outfitters. Counties with outfitters should tax them for the deer they have shot by customers. The deer are owned by the state of iowa and its people. These outfitters are making profit on the deer that you and the rest of us try and manage. Most outfitters will not have any does shot by their customers and will not let anyone else hunt on land they lease/own. We need to do something about these profiteers. I have a problem with these people leasing up large chunks of ground and not letting anyone shoot deer. In Guthrie county their are several outfitters with large chunks of land. As of today there are 1583 doe tags for Guthrie County. There wil be 900 or so left over after the season. You can't lower the population if you can't hunt them. I have 5 doe tags for 1st shotgun. My son and I killed two doe last weekend and I plan on killing some in the late season,but that is on land that I hunt, which keeps getting smaller every year. Please do something whether it be taxing the outfitter or the landowner leasing to them.

 

[TallTines]

To go along with all this while I am thinking about it is really trying to get alot of hunters involved in contacting these legislators. I think for the most part it is people on this site who contact them. I would like to find ways to get the majority of hunters involved as well and i think the only way to do it is to keep it simple.

I am thinking of things to prepare us for the upcoming season here are some of my suggestions.

Big flyers in all hunting stores alerting hunters to what is going on. These flyers would lead to a website like IBA that tell of all the problems with allowing outfitters and raising NR tags and How it will effect them.

When they go to this site they should have easy full access to all the legislators.
They should maybe even have an automated message to send all of the legislators just by pushing a button.

I think by making it very easy to send these complaints to the right pepole we will be able to get a much greater voice.
I hope you can understand what I am thinking about. Easier the better. what other suggestions do you guys have ?
I love Iowa I would like to see that it is not whored out like so many other states.

 

[JNRBRONC]

Talltines,
An IBA website drive would be a start, but I know many hunters my age (40+) who don't use the internet. Even if they saw a sign in a hunting store they would not bother to visit the site. Maybe include a phone number of an IBA member to contact for assistance?

Other avenues will have to be employed in such a campaign. If only we could get the list of names of those who purchased deer licenses to start a mailing/phone campaign. The DNR being a state agency, would such a list be accessible under the freedom of information act? Though I can think of one four-letter named organization that would like this list for totally different purposes

 

[TimberPig]

I dont know how effective this type of thing is, but everyone who is a member of the NRA knows about the postcards they send out. The postcards contain a standard message on a certain issue and are already addressed to your legislators. All you have to do is stamp them and mail them. The idea being to let the legislators see the mountain of postcards that reflect the number of people with that same position on the issue. It does not get any easier than that for people to participate.

Could an organization like the IBA put something like that together to be mailed to all Iowa sportsman?

I know that kind of thing costs money, but the NRA typically includes a means to donate money to their Legislative action fund (or whatever its called). As close to home as these issues hit, I'd donate a few bucks.

 

[TallTines]

I like the idea timberpig. it seems simple enough. I hope we remember all these ideas for the upcoming season.

 

[singlecoyote]

If we could compile a list of ideas and thoughts on this topic and have someone write them up in a very professional manner then each of us could email this same letter to representatives. Maybe we should have our own vote on certain topics to gain a concensus. Just an idea.