Fishbonker
Life Member
There have been a couple of threads lately discussing the deer herd in Iowa. The overarching concept of too few/too many deer is one of “Cultural Carrying Capacity”.
Cultural carrying capacity refers not to how many deer this State can grow but how many deer we can all get along with. Producers and insurance companies want the deer population to be low. Hunters want the number to be high. So Iowa’s CCC is somewhere in between.
The DNR can tell we are nearing equilibrium in the CCC because fewer producers are rating the deer herd as too high whereas more hunters are saying the herd is too low. Deer/vehicle collisions are dropping. This indicates, to me anyway, that the insurance companies should be happier with the herd today than a year ago.
For several years the only drum being beaten was a drum called “Too many deer” and this drum was beaten hardest by the insurance companies and producers. The legislature heard and listened to the drum. They directed the DNR to decrease the herd to mid 1990 numbers which I believe was around 190,000 deer state wide.
The effort to decrease the herd started in earnest a few years ago after we, the hunters, listened to the drum being beaten by the DNR at the request of the legislature. That drum was called “Kill does”. We heard and we listened to the drum.
Now we are the ones beating the drum and it is called “Too few deer”. It is my hope that the legislature will hear and listen to our drum and have faith in us as hunters and the biology side of the DNR not the budget side to get the herd to the prescribed cultural carrying capacity we can all live with.
We must beat the drum of “Too few deer”, we must beat the drum loudly for a very long time to be heard by the legislature or the pendulum of cultural carrying capacity will swing much too far to the “lower numbers are better side”.
You can beat the drum in several ways. First, join a group i.e. pay dues to a group, that most closely represents your views on deer and deer hunting in IOWA (of course I’m partial to the IBA). Second, sign up at Iowa White Tails Forever to stay informed of legislative initiatives and then contact your Representative and Senator about your views. Believe me they do listen. They may not always agree with you but remember you are a voter and you can work to change who sits in that chair at the Capital. Third, contact the DNR about how many deer you are or perhaps aren’t seeing.
One more thing before I crawl back into my cave. In the past and still to this day we have been the main herd management tool, except for the occasional Chevy, in this State. There are many many areas in the State that are still overrun with deer. The reasons are varied but it all comes down, in my opinion, to hunters losing access to land and therefore the ability to manage the population. There are those groups out there who lobby the Legislature and the budget side of the DNR for the “right” to hunt their land under the guise of herd management or those who would turn the deer herd, a natural resource, into a cash cow to be milked until her teats are bloodied and blistered and her udder dry. We must stand up and say hunting is a privilege in Iowa and not a right of ownership and as such the privilege of hunting is something to be earned not purchased by the highest bidder. If the rules regarding nonresident landowners are changed from the status quo we will have lived in the halcyon days of deer hunting in Iowa and our deer hunting future will indeed be sold to the highest bidder.
I’m crawling back into my cave now and rolling the rock behind me.
The ‘Bonker
Cultural carrying capacity refers not to how many deer this State can grow but how many deer we can all get along with. Producers and insurance companies want the deer population to be low. Hunters want the number to be high. So Iowa’s CCC is somewhere in between.
The DNR can tell we are nearing equilibrium in the CCC because fewer producers are rating the deer herd as too high whereas more hunters are saying the herd is too low. Deer/vehicle collisions are dropping. This indicates, to me anyway, that the insurance companies should be happier with the herd today than a year ago.
For several years the only drum being beaten was a drum called “Too many deer” and this drum was beaten hardest by the insurance companies and producers. The legislature heard and listened to the drum. They directed the DNR to decrease the herd to mid 1990 numbers which I believe was around 190,000 deer state wide.
The effort to decrease the herd started in earnest a few years ago after we, the hunters, listened to the drum being beaten by the DNR at the request of the legislature. That drum was called “Kill does”. We heard and we listened to the drum.
Now we are the ones beating the drum and it is called “Too few deer”. It is my hope that the legislature will hear and listen to our drum and have faith in us as hunters and the biology side of the DNR not the budget side to get the herd to the prescribed cultural carrying capacity we can all live with.
We must beat the drum of “Too few deer”, we must beat the drum loudly for a very long time to be heard by the legislature or the pendulum of cultural carrying capacity will swing much too far to the “lower numbers are better side”.
You can beat the drum in several ways. First, join a group i.e. pay dues to a group, that most closely represents your views on deer and deer hunting in IOWA (of course I’m partial to the IBA). Second, sign up at Iowa White Tails Forever to stay informed of legislative initiatives and then contact your Representative and Senator about your views. Believe me they do listen. They may not always agree with you but remember you are a voter and you can work to change who sits in that chair at the Capital. Third, contact the DNR about how many deer you are or perhaps aren’t seeing.
One more thing before I crawl back into my cave. In the past and still to this day we have been the main herd management tool, except for the occasional Chevy, in this State. There are many many areas in the State that are still overrun with deer. The reasons are varied but it all comes down, in my opinion, to hunters losing access to land and therefore the ability to manage the population. There are those groups out there who lobby the Legislature and the budget side of the DNR for the “right” to hunt their land under the guise of herd management or those who would turn the deer herd, a natural resource, into a cash cow to be milked until her teats are bloodied and blistered and her udder dry. We must stand up and say hunting is a privilege in Iowa and not a right of ownership and as such the privilege of hunting is something to be earned not purchased by the highest bidder. If the rules regarding nonresident landowners are changed from the status quo we will have lived in the halcyon days of deer hunting in Iowa and our deer hunting future will indeed be sold to the highest bidder.
I’m crawling back into my cave now and rolling the rock behind me.
The ‘Bonker
hahahahaha
