I'm sure the DNR's feeling about NR's and the deer herd is that most NR's are coming to shoot bucks and not does so they feel that it will have little affect on deer herd populations. I even want to say at one of the hearings farm bureau was saying that they needed unlimted tags for NR's to control the population but the DNR responded that was the reason for the antlerless tags being unlimted at $25 a pop. Of course, not many people are going to pay the rest of the fees involved to hunt, travel 500+ miles just to shoot a doe.

Is the fee a bit much? Yeah but they are not going to drop it anytime soon. The people who set the prices and policies are politicians and until they see a huge drop off in demand they won't budge. The NR's without a lot of money are going to be the first so suffer and than it will be the residents who don't have a lot of money or have family with land because they won't be able to afford leasing. Already starting. Still puiblic land to hunt but there is not a lot of acres per hunter available in Illinois.