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License Increase

It wouldn't bother me if the price jumped a little but I would like to see what they are doing with the money. In ten years if things keep going they way they are there won't be any habitat around my area anyways. It's pretty sad but I guess there's always fishing. And even if the habitat in your area isnt getting pushed in for farming, unless you own your own ground it will effect you eventually. You think leasing is bad now, wait 5 or 10 years when the "farmable" timbers are all pushed in the central and northern 2/3s of the state. It's coming.
Its already here ive seen more bulldozers clearing ground the last two years than I jave ever seen
 
We're passed the point of needing to lower the herd numbers. Many of us agree on that.

I'm OK with the costs of licenses going up. And I do agree (even tho it hurts) that NR licenses are too expensive. It's already pretty hard to draw, so raising them too much more isn't really needed. Iowa is very unfriendly to NR hunters (both the DNR and fellow hunters). You very rarely see a member offer good advice, unlike I had in my experience out in Wyoming.

I think a few less doe tags would be sold if we raised the prices, which could be a good thing.
 
I'm OK with the costs of licenses going up. And I do agree (even tho it hurts) that NR licenses are too expensive. It's already pretty hard to draw, so raising them too much more isn't really needed. Iowa is very unfriendly to NR hunters (both the DNR and fellow hunters). You very rarely see a member offer good advice, unlike I had in my experience out in Wyoming.

I think a few less doe tags would be sold if we raised the prices, which could be a good thing.
I'm OK with paying more for a resident license.

I don't agree with the NR tag being reduced. Why would we do that? The difficulty in drawing is based upon the number of tags available and the number of people applying. Reducing the NR tag cost will only have more people applying, meaning worse odds in the draw.

More NR's are currently applying than tags available. Some people would claim that the price should be raised to find the "elasticity in the market". I'm not a fan of that, though.

As far as being unfriendly to NR, they are directly competing with very limited access in Iowa. Wyoming has HUGE areas of public/national ground to hunt; apples to oranges comparison.
 
EHD has nothing to do with herd management. The herd is at or below goal in most counties, no pressure on the NR hunter to come kill does.

Where do you read that? I found 7 dead deer due to EHD...you'd rather see that than let me get a simple doe tag. Doe numbers are high where I hunt.

Quote on EHD..."dense deer herds help spread and support the EHD virus better than low sparse herds"
 
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I was working on my taxes so I'm a little touchy about paying the Government any more money for anything right now.:mad: Seems like an awfully high percentage increase to take in one bite. Would I pay it? Yes, but not happily since I don't expect to see anything for my money. When someone introduces a bill like this they should have to specify why the increase is needed and what it's for.
 
Hardwood11 said:
Where do you read that? I found 7 dead deer due to EHD...you'd rather see that than let me get a simple doe tag. Doe numbers are high where I hunt.

Quote on EHD..."dense deer herds help spread and support the EHD virus better than low sparse herds"

If you are really worried about your doe numbers why don't you let a resident of Iowa go in there and shoot a few. There's always residents on here looking for a place to hunt. Or maybe find a resident with a youngster and let him/her shoot one of your does. There's options if you are truly worried about your doe herd.
 
Where do you read that? I found 7 dead deer due to EHD...you'd rather see that than let me get a simple doe tag. Doe numbers are high where I hunt.

Quote on EHD..."dense deer herds help spread and support the EHD virus better than low sparse herds"

Hardwoods, several years ago our numbers were much higher, with less EHD. Density is a factor, but not the cause.
 
exactly right, they buy huge parcels of land and have hundreds of deer on their properties and showup for a few days of the year to shoot a trophy buck and not grant anyone permission to even step foot on their ground and then complain about all the does they are seeing.

I personally know know A LOT more residents that own land that are restrictive to others, to the point of harassing anyone they don't know driving down a public gravel road because they might be looking at "their" bucks.

That notwithstanding, the same people cry for the same reasons about not being let on whatever private land they want. If somebody wants to keep people out, that's their business. Spend your energy knocking on doors or helping a landowner, not whining about big bad landowners. I don't own a truck, but if I wanted to use one and nobody would let me, is that wrong? No.

On another note: what exactly does the Habitat Fee go towards? I can't drive more than 10 miles down the highway without seeing a bulldozer pushing brush back so the farmer can get in 3 more rows of corn. I mean, I live in what used to be an amazing pheasant state and just bought a bird dog to hunt grouse! Its rediculous.
 
If you are really worried about your doe numbers why don't you let a resident of Iowa go in there and shoot a few. There's always residents on here looking for a place to hunt. Or maybe find a resident with a youngster and let him/her shoot one of your does. There's options if you are truly worried about your doe herd.

I do yes thanks already thought of that
 
As a farmer I also agree that the NR tage prices should increase because I dont feel its right that the crops I raise,feed the deer out of staters can hunt. The Iowa residents sould get the breaks on these tags not out of staters. I also feel we should start limiting the amount of antlerless tags in our state because the amount of deer I saw this past season was depressing due to all of the extra doe tags. Also if DNR's budget is an issue i can see why. Dont give state money to projects like lake delhigh and buying all new trucks for the officers to drive around in. I was checked this passed weekend by a officer in a 2013 f-150 crew cab lariat. Thats a little rediculous learn how to manage your funds iowa.
 
I personally know know A LOT more residents that own land that are restrictive to others, to the point of harassing anyone they don't know driving down a public gravel road because they might be looking at "their" bucks.

That notwithstanding, the same people cry for the same reasons about not being let on whatever private land they want. If somebody wants to keep people out, that's their business. Spend your energy knocking on doors or helping a landowner, not whining about big bad landowners. I don't own a truck, but if I wanted to use one and nobody would let me, is that wrong? No.

On another note: what exactly does the Habitat Fee go towards? I can't drive more than 10 miles down the highway without seeing a bulldozer pushing brush back so the farmer can get in 3 more rows of corn. I mean, I live in what used to be an amazing pheasant state and just bought a bird dog to hunt grouse! Its rediculous.

I am lucky enough to have several differsnt spots to hunt that are all private including a couple family farms, the point is it seems the areas that are largely populated with deerherds are basically off limits and even hunting bordering properties you run into what you mentioned
 
I would have to agree, you can go to many other states for a heck of a lot less. That goes for deer and turkey. It's the one reason I will never move :grin:

You can go to other states and doe hunt for a heck of a lot less but I don't know of any other state that allows a NR to buy a doe tag, party hunt with someone else with a buck tag, & shoot a buck on the other persons tag. NRs who hunt Iowa are given special privileges they can't get in other states & I believe those privileges are built into the costs of NR tags and help justify their high prices.
 
I don't see a whole lot of benefit directily from tag/habitat fees personally. I love our DNR and what they do for our deer herd, that is enough to be thankful. If they want to increase tag fees I suggest increasing the antlerless tags and NR tags. Why should we lower NR tags? More people already apply every year than drawn, if anything raise it, the demand is there.
 
I got a lifetime hunting/fishing license, but still have to pay for my tags.

I don't mind the increase, but agree with a lot of others on here. If the Resident's goes up...then so should the NR tags.

Sad...but if they "need money", I can't see them taking away the January late-antlerless season either. Even though most of us seen record low #'s of deer this year.
 
If they need the money so bad they should start cracking down on poachers and fining them more. Just my two cents
 
Man I can't believe how much venom is pouring out regarding non resident hunters. It's an illogical thought to say a fee needs raised when your already the most expensive whitetail tag in the US for a NR. I understand its upsetting but treating all NR of Iowa like garbage isn't going to help the situation. In fact it will only make it worse. But then those same NR landowners are supposed to trust a resident to take does off their property when they aren't their to watch it. Now that's a fox in the hen house from my prospective.

As hunters we need to work together instead of dividing each other. BTW my state(IN) also robbed the DNR recently. Words do not describe my feelings on that.
 
hoosierhunter said:
Man I can't believe how much venom is pouring out regarding non resident hunters. It's an illogical thought to say a fee needs raised when your already the most expensive whitetail tag in the US for a NR. I understand its upsetting but treating all NR of Iowa like garbage isn't going to help the situation. In fact it will only make it worse. But then those same NR landowners are supposed to trust a resident to take does off their property when they aren't their to watch it. Now that's a fox in the hen house from my prospective.

As hunters we need to work together instead of dividing each other. BTW my state(IN) also robbed the DNR recently. Words do not describe my feelings on that.

I only suggested letting a resident take a doe off the gentlemans land because he was concerned about his doe population with the ways the NR tag restrictions are right now. The fox in the hen house comment you made is kind of harsh. From what I get out of it you are assuming Iowa residents in general are not trustworthy. Well everyone has an opinion and I don't think it's a coincidence that this opinion comes from a non resident. If every non res on here complaining would just answer this question. If its so horribly expensive then why own land in Iowa or why hunt here? You make the choice to do it nobody does it for you. It's an easy fix. With today's ground prices why would you not sell the farm and buy somewhere else? Enlighten me. Obviously you made the decision not to do so based on something so quit complaining. Heres how I look at it. Say I win a million dollars. First thing I do is buy a million dollar house. It's a nice house swimming pool and sh!t, whatever a million can get me. Well i spent the million on the house and its great, but the area I bought in the taxes are pretty spendy. So I get on the local tax forum and complain but the people that have been living there for a while say they don't mind it. Well I guess my options are shut up and keep paying the spendy taxes and enjoy my big house. Or sell my house buy in a cheaper area and have a few more dollars in my pocket. The choice is ultimately yours.
 
a couple things. Lake Delhi is not a DNR deal. They wanted it to go back to a river system which it originally was. Thats Brandstad allocating money to them not the DNR. As far as the truck comment. What are the suppose to drive? 1998 regular cab with 175,000 miles? The state gets contracts every year from the the major auto companies and they go with the whoever gives them the best rate. Thats why you sometimes see Dodges, Fords and Chevys.

I look at these increases as this. People get cost of living increases a lot of years and some have come to expect them. So why is that any different then a license increase. Its actually pretty simple economics. As the price of equipment and such things come up so does the the tags/licenses.

I agree that the bulldozer phenom is getting terrible! But, the DNR has nothing to do with those kinds of things. They cant control that anymore then the weather. Those kind of things are on the private landowner and something they have to call the ball on not the state or DNR. With that being said I would love to see a study done on how long it takes a farmer to recoup the money from crops that he spent on dozer work.
 
With that being said I would love to see a study done on how long it takes a farmer to recoup the money from crops that he spent on dozer work.

With the high price of grain last year, many farmers are having this work done as a pre-tax deduction, lowering their net income so that they pay in less taxes. So some of the recoup is instantaneous. And/or spread the cost over a couple of years to lower the tax burden. It's not a simple matter of having the increased yield pay for it, though that will factor in.
 
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