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Court case

Fishbonker

Life Member
Earlier this year the Iowa Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a lower court's decision by a nonresident land owner that it was unconstitutional for Iowa to deny him the right to hunt antlered deer on his land every year.

Link to the lower court's ruling: https://law.justia.com/cases/iowa/court-of-appeals/2019/18-0087.html

I believe the plaintiff in this case has used all of his avenues for relief through the judiciary system.

I bring this up now only because I heard a rumor that the individual is planning on going through the legislative branch/process to gain access to yearly antlered deer hunting. This means the possibility of hiring a lobbyist to further his goals and taking an active roll at the capital.

This was tried a few years ago by a group calling itself The Friends of Iowa. Some of us old timers remember it well. While I do not support any new efforts by nonresidents, I do support their right to try.

As we inch ever closer to another legislative season keep this in the back of your mind when you are hunting deer this season: you have the opportunities to hunt a great deer herd in Iowa thanks to the efforts of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources who manage our deer in the public trust and to NGOs like the IBA who make the hunters voice be heard.

Stay tuned. Hopefully this will turn out to be baseless, but forewarned is forearmed.
 
Seems like a waste of time to me, but politicians seem to hear rich ideas better than they hear the good ideas, so you never know.

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Maybe use that extra $$$ to be set aside for more public land?

Highly unlikely that would happen. The legislature has bent over backwards to deny the DNR the ability to purchase any more land for public use. The citizen oversight for the DNR, the Natural Resource Commission, has members who publicly state they will never vote for the acquisition of land by the DNR for public use. The legislature even stripped the use of habitat fees we all pay when we purchase out licenses from being used to purchase ground for public use. So, no.
 
If I remember right, the Friends of Iowa were hooked up with Farm Bureau?

Well, I can't say the FB actually supported the FOI with any monetary contributions but they gave them their tacit approval.

Fast forward to 2019 and farmers are complaining about the high cost of pasture land caused by the inflated land prices for deer hunting ground. Having said that there are plenty of FB members who have a small piece of marginal ground they could sell for deer hunting that stand to make big bucks. So I'm not sure how the FB looks at this issue today. Perhaps someone else has more insight into how the FB feels about NRLO hunting these days.

As an after thought, I wonder how many NRLOs are FB members. That might skew how the FB responds to this issue.
 
Highly unlikely that would happen. The legislature has bent over backwards to deny the DNR the ability to purchase any more land for public use. The citizen oversight for the DNR, the Natural Resource Commission, has members who publicly state they will never vote for the acquisition of land by the DNR for public use. The legislature even stripped the use of habitat fees we all pay when we purchase out licenses from being used to purchase ground for public use. So, no.

Sounds like the NRC doesn't follow their mission very well then.

Our Mission
To conserve and enhance our
natural resources in cooperation
with individuals and organizations
to improve the quality of life in Iowa
and ensure a legacy for
future generations.

Buying land for public use seems to fit perfectly with this mission. What else ensures a legacy for future generations better than acquiring land for use by future generations.

Members are appointed to 6 year terms by the governor. Wonder when their terms are up??
 
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