It's that time again

[Fishbonker]

Elections are just around the corner. We need to be proactive instead of reactive and ask the candidates what their stances are before they are elected and then support them once we know where they stand. This is a letter I sent today:

Citizens for Emma Nemecek
1689 Bliss Rd.
Mount Vernon, IA 52314

Enclosed is a contribution to the campaign.

I have been corresponding with Tim Demuth via E-mail regarding the issues facing deer and deer hunting in Iowa.

This issue is more complex than it appears and is a hot button topic among deer hunters.

As a primer, the base issue stems from two things, a lack of funding for the DNR and a desire by the automobile insurance companies to cut their losses resulting from auto vs. deer accidents.

The DNR wants more money, to get more money they need to sell more licenses. The insurance companies want fewer deer. Their solution was to attempt to raise the quota of nonresident deer licenses so more licenses would be sold and more deer would be killed.

This was, and still is, for many reasons, unacceptable to Iowans who hunt deer. As happened in Illinois and Kansas, an increase in non resident hunters has made it next to impossible to find private land to hunt on. The potential for poaching is increased, land values are artificially inflated in some areas so when the deer are gone the land is worth far less than what was paid for it. The herd will continue to be out of balance because only bucks will be harvested. The concern over unlicensed, unregulated outfitters (guides) is an issue in and of itself.

This is only a small part of the over all issue. I would recommend contacting Willie Suchy, the state deer biologist or the Iowa Bowhunters Association (IBA). Mr. Suchy is a world of information about the herd and wildlife in general and seems to have the hunters and the deer heard in perspective, as does the IBA which has many members in this district.

The attempt to raise the quotas was defeated by a grassroots effort to attend the DNR meetings and voice our opinions.

Good luck in your campaign, if I can provide any other insight or information to the campaign on this or any other topics, please feel free to contact me via E-mail, Fishbonker @ iowawhitetail.com. If I don’t know the answer to your question I’m sure I can point you to someone who can.

Thanks again and good luck. I will share your views with my fellow hunters.




Ms. Nemecek is running for the State House in District 29. This is a very diverse district encompasing parts of Cedar Rapids, Mount Vernon and Iowa City. Go to her web site www.emmanemecek.com and send her an e-mail with any questions. I received a prompt reply.

It's up to us to elect our representatives. You can't complain if you don't vote.

The 'Bonker

 

[jgeorgic]

"The potential for poaching is increased, land values are artificially inflated in some areas so when the deer are gone the land is worth far less than what was paid for it. The herd will continue to be out of balance because only bucks will be harvested"

Let me try to understand this.....
"The potential for poaching is increased"... Are you saying that because of more sales of licenses to Non-Residents that the locals will poach more....Poachers will take deer wherever and whenerver they want.Residents or Non-Residents included...They are unethical people who have no regard for anything.As for the price of land....Are you saying that as a farmer it is unacceptable for me to make a few extra dollars of land that I have ? I think not ! I will lease my land to anyone who has the $$$$ to pay for it and as far as shooting all the deer and making the land less valuable that line is a bunch of crap.It would take gross mismanagement of a land mass to get rid of all the deer in one single area espically here in Iowa where the deer population per square mile is one of the highest in the US.Now for the line that I agree with "land out of balance because bucks only will be harvested".That has to be changed by the DNR and all of us who hunt.
Every state has the same problems,just look around.It's a sign of the times
Until the DNR stops getting bought out by the special intrest groups we are all screwed...plain and simple.We need support of ALL and I mean ALL the hunters to tell them enough is enough.We are the ones that support conservation in this state with all the monies that are spent on license fees. Not the insurance companies !

 

[pethers]

CSC Archer beat me to it. I took offense to that increase in poaching line. You might want to elaborate on that line a litte. Oh and GO BLUE!! Sorry Archer, had to do it! Nice game against ND last week! Same old choke job!!

 

[Fishbonker]

Let try to explain this…….

My initial correspondence with this particular campaign was a simple question “What are your views on the deer heard in Iowa?” What I got back was a simple statement that something needed to be done, there are too many deer in Iowa. In my next E-mail I pressed them on the issue; I asked what their views were on the DNR and the Farm Bureau’s attempt to increase the quota of non resident tags. The return E-mail had some of their views which included an “earn a buck” for non residents. And you got a buck tag ONLY if there were buck tags left in the zone. You only got either sex tags after you shot a doe and only if there were any tags left in your zone. To me, that is nothing more than a “temptation tag”, hence the potential for increased poaching. I will also add, in my opinion, earn a buck is not particularly fair to non-residents if residents don’t have to abide by the same earn a buck rules and I don’t want any part of earn a buck. This may be ignorance on my part, but I just don’t like the concept, but I have no actual experience with this.

As a land owner you do have the right to lease out your land to anyone with the $$$. That is my point. Why let anyone hunt for free when there is a dollar to be made? My take on this is it’s sorta like the gold rush. A good “claim” sells for big money. The claim is worked and worked and worked until only the gravel is left. The claim is then sold based on past earnings to someone who doesn’t know any better. A piece of good hunting ground is sold based on the number of trophy bucks in the area. The area is hunted and hunted and hunted, the biguns are all now on walls with just the does and the inferior (genetically speaking) bucks left as breeders. What happened to the herd? Owner can’t make the payments because he can’t lease it anymore, bank wants their money…….You will counter with ”well, they didn’t practice good QDM”. I agree, they didn’t. But who is gonna regulate that? It isn’t “shooting all the deer on a given land mass” it’s shooting all the prime deer on the land mass.

Anyway, if I had shared their replies to my questions I think you would have agreed with my response. This is a good example of getting in on the ground floor and helping shape a candidates views before PAC money blinds them.

I hope this helped, if not I’ll try to clarify more.

The ‘Bonker

 

[KSQ2]

Bonker is spot-on. He's right about the poaching too... sad but true, residents being pushed around and out will bring out the worst in people. Just come down here to Kansas and you'll see what happens when a state opens the floodgate to non-residents. And oh yeah, the gate I guess isn't open far enough for our Wildlife Dept. The trophy quality of Kansas' herd as a whole has dropped DRAMATICALLY the last five years. Sad... Iowa residents choose your representative govt wisely!

 

[boacephus]

Don't take to much personal views on the increased poaching, see it more of a broad statement. Simply put more deer being harvested without the proper tag. Not neccessarily just trophy bucks.

Land values....I can see it. Hunters are declining. I don't know how much truth is in it but I seen on the news the best farm ground went up 2 and some odd percent, so its around 3700 acre, for prime farm ground. Prime hunting ground outways that by alot!!!! That person losses interest in hunting can't find a buyer willing to pay what he is asking. Eventually he will, chances are with increasing population it will be a developer, WHO WANTS THAT. I'm from the Eastern panhandle of WV, 1 1/2 hrs from DC and Baltimore. I graduated 370 odd students, in 4 years my brother will graduate 800, thats just one of the 5 high school classes. There was a small 10 acre corn field just over the hill form my house I use to hunt. That ground is now being developed and selling for 37,000 per 1/4 acre lot.

Trophy deer or not, are goal in the long run and in the big picture is to be able to retain our privelage to hunt period!!! For us and our grandchildren. When and if the day comes I will be extatic over a buck on the wall. I'm near exctatic every successful hunt I go on, trophy or not, that is what I want to maintain.