Meeting Public Comments

Matt Eggers []

HSB 610This bill sets aside deer tags for nonresident landowners. It is bad for wildlife and residents of Iowa. Wildlife are held in trust for citizens of the state. Landowners, resident or nonresident, have no additional rights to a deer tag than anyone else. Nonresidents know the rules for obtaining deer tags when they purchase land in Iowa. They purchase land, then try to change the rules, to the detriment of residents of the state of Iowa. My understanding is part of the concern that caused this bill is antihunters buying land in Iowa. I and others have asked for any sort of proof of this and to date none has been provided. This is absolutely a slippery slope. The bill currently requires a landowner to have owned the land for 10 years. The next step will be to reduce that number until it is zero. Passage of this bill will cause lots of nonresident hunters with deep pockets to purchase land here because tags will be easier for them to get. And they will see the writing on the wall tags will continually get easier for nonresident landowners to obtain once we open this door. Land prices and hunting land value will skyrocket. This will price out Iowa residents, resulting in significant loss of access for residents. This will make hunting and recreation land access for Iowans more difficult to obtain. My understanding is the 500 tags for nonresident landowners proposed in this bill is in addition to the nonresident tags already allotted. Iowa has a great tradition of high quality deer hunting. Most of Iowa has marginal deer habitat. An increased harvest and an increase in pressure will negatively impact our deer herd. This will reduce the quality of the experience here, again to the detriment mostly of Iowa residents.I understand the bill include provisions requiring nonresident landowners to allow resident access. Our DNR is already a skeleton crew. The same people supporting this bill, with all the stipulations, refuse to fund the DNR to sufficiently investigate and enforce already written laws. I have serious doubts about how these stipulations could even be monitored, let alone enforced. Im also very skeptical the next step will not be to eliminate these provisions all together.Deer hunting in Iowa is better than anywhere in the country. These changes will negatively impact our deer herd and the hunting experience for residents. I ask that you vote against this bill.I am asking that you do the right thing for Iowans and vote against this and other bills you are likely to see this session that harm our wildlife and harm Iowans.