dont know if my buddies to the west have seen this.
Iowa seeking hunting, fishing license increases
December 15, 2008
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)—Iowa wildlife officials want to increase hunting and license fees to offset revenues lost because of last summer’s flooding.
Ken Herring, the state’s conservation and recreation administrator, says in a copyright story in The Des Moines Register, that fewer people hunted, fished and camped in Iowa this year because of the flooding.
“Our pheasant population was severely hit by the long winter and wet spring. We had parks closed during the peak camping season. It just was not good year,” Herring said.
Fishing license sales were down $1 million. Another $1 million in cropland lease revenue was lost and millions of dollars in damage was reported to roads, dams, fish hatcheries and other facilities.
Herring says officials are seeking a 34 percent increase in basic hunting and fishing license fees.
That does not include habitat fees, waterfowl stamps or trout fees. Projected increases in various deer, turkey, trapping, short-term fishing and other licenses vary.
For example, the habitat fee hunters have to pay would jump 17 percent to $13.50; resident turkey licenses would jump nearly 20 percent and resident any-sex deer licenses would rise by 39 percent. One of the biggest increases would be in the resident trapping license, which would increase 71 percent to $36.
Lawmakers would have to approve the increases, which would likely take effect July 1.
Tim Shaw, 45, of Muscatine, said it’s harder to find areas to hunt pheasants on private land, which accounts for most of Iowa’s acreage. He said increases in fees may discourage hunters.
“This year has been a bust,” he said. “I’m trying to get my boy interested in hunting, but it it’s going to cost him a bunch of money he’ll say ‘I don’t need this.‘“
Herring said he expects plenty of complaints.
“We understand these are difficult times, but the reality we are facing is that our hunters and anglers carry the majority of the conservation funding burden in the state, and we will need to increase the license fees to meet the rising costs of maintaining areas to hunt and fish,” Herring said. “Without an increase, the quality of our natural areas will begin to decline and fewer and fewer people will find these areas attractive.”
