This past week was spent on debating and voting on bills. One that I managed on the floor dealt with land acquisition by state government (the Department of Natural Resources). It prohibits the purchase of land at public auction by the DNR or any non-profit from purchasing at auction to be donated to the DNR.
The confusion – or misinformation – that came about led people to believe that someone would be limited in who they want to sell or donate property to. If you have land and want to sell it to the DNR, you can go right ahead and do it. If you want donate land to a group, you can do that too. It simply can not be done by auction, whereby a private individual competes with the government.
And actually, this is the current departmental policy. The bill simply puts into code what is current practice.
The state of Iowa is currently the largest owner of land in the state. Plus, there are about 300,000 acres of federal land. There are county conservation boards that have land. In my district in 7 counties there are 10,167 acres controlled by county conservation boards. Should there be more? That’s up to the county board.
Most of the protest about the bill came from highly populated areas, not from rural areas.
There are always bills brought up involving deer and deer hunting every year. I’ve done some myself. But in light of how this past year has gone with disease and drought I think we need to get some more information about what the deer population is. I’ve heard from hunters that they aren’t seeing as many and some of the numbers support that, with some counties seeing a big decline in the herd. Most of the bills proposed would get more tags to hunt. The problem is, we aren’t filling all the tags that are available now. There isn’t much point in adding to a pot that is still partly full.
Across western and southwest Iowa the change in the harvest on an average of 5 years has seen a decline by as much as 37%. The average in my district is 19% with one county with a 29% decline.
Yes, we need more hunters because hunting licenses pay for a lot of things that the DNR does like conservation officers.
The issue with AEAs continues to simmer and work continues to get to a viable solution.
Occasionally I am asked about getting a road/highway worked on. By code we cannot appropriate money for a specific project. Can you imagine the chaos of 150 legislators with their own pet projects trying to manage infrastructure construction? Many might say it couldn’t be much worse. I would suggest that yes it can.
