dtk913

Thanks for posting that article. I am an outfitter in Iowa. Altougth I am an outfitter I still believe that the deer herd state wide needs to be strictly managed. For the most part I think Iowa does a pretty good job of that. I have had discussions with DNR officials in the past about licensing outfitters here in Iowa. Right now there aren't that many here. The relatively small amount of tags, and the difficulty of drawing those tagsfor non residents keeps the amount of outfitters down. I do believe that the license limits will change someday, and I don't want our state to end up in the same predicament Illinois is in, with outfitters running the state. That is not a good thing for the deer herd, or the resident hunters.

My conversations have really lead nowhere, because the state doesn't want to get involved with the outfitters. I have proposed licensing fees, a cap on the number of outfitters statewide, a cap on the amount of land that can be leased by an outfitter, but they don't think it is a problem right now, so they really don't care. I agree it is really not a problem right now when compared to Illinois, but why should we wait for the problem when we could do something now to prevent the problem from happening in the future. I am sure people will find flaws with my thinking, but it is just an idea to get the ball rolling.

Anyways, I think the article gives some credence to some of the points I was trying to make with our offcials here. Maybe it will help me convince them something needs to be done.

Thanks
Dan