Hunters and non-hunters in Iowa must do their part for wildlife

Iowa needs more public land.

Many of Iowa’s 3.2 million residents enjoy spending time in nature doing many different things. Hiking, watching wildlife, seeing native plant species, camping, canoeing, bicycle riding, photography, mushrooming, fishing, and hunting are some of these many activities. Only a small minority of Iowans own land where they can do these things. About 2% of Iowa’s land is available for public access, among the lowest percentages of all 50 states. Providing increased opportunities for public access to nature will require both effort and money, but many Iowans — both consumptive users (hunters and anglers) and nonconsumptive users (bird-watchers, bikers, etc.) — think it would be well worth it.

Some think there are “bird-watchers and bird killers and never the twain shall meet.” Like most things in life, it’s just not that simple. I, for example, enjoy observing the diversity of Iowa’s bird species, AND I like hunting pheasants and ducks. One the most memorable things from my last duck season was seeing a pair of white-faced ibises flying around my duck blind. These birds are definitely not legal to shoot, but they are great to see because they rarely migrate through Iowa.

It often seems as though those who love watching and conserving wildlife and those who love hunting and conserving wildlife are in opposition, but in many important ways they are “on the same team.”

The single most important connection between these two seemingly disparate groups can be summed up in one word: “habitat.”

Wildlife requires suitable places to live that provide for all of their resource needs, such as food, water, shelter, and breeding areas. Corn and soybean fields provide great habitat for some species of wildlife. For example, insects like European corn borer and nematodes like soybean cyst nematodes can be abundant in row crop fields. But for many of the species people actually like to see, including birds such as meadow larks, barred owls, trumpeter swans and pheasants, row crops provide only a portion (often “food”) of the habitat required for these species to survive.

In Iowa, with about 90% of the land in agricultural production (mostly row crop) and about 98% of the land in private ownership, good habitat for wildlife can be very hard to come by. Providing suitable habitat for Iowa’s wildlife requires time, effort, and money.

Part of the mission of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is to acquire and manage land (and water) to provide high quality wildlife habitat. The Iowa DNR is aided in these efforts by county conservation agencies and various nonprofit groups including the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, Pheasants Forever, Quail Forever, the National Wild Turkey Federation, Delta Waterfowl, and Ducks Unlimited, among others.

One might reasonably expect that all citizens of Iowa contribute to this challenging, but worthy, effort equivalently through our tax dollars. That is true, to an extent. According to the fiscal year 2023 DNR budget summary there was approximately $466 million available for the DNR to use in working toward its many goals, including habitat acquisition and management. State tax dollars, however, accounted for less than one quarter of that total — about $94 million. The rest of the funding comes from numerous other sources, but a substantial amount can be tied directly to hunting and fishing.

Hunting and fishing license fees contributed about $72 million in 2023. Federal funds from the Pittman-Robertson Act of 1937 added another $17 million. Just to be clear, Pittman-Robertson funds accrue as a result of an excise tax on hunting and shooting supplies. So — funds derived from about 625,000 of Iowa’s citizens (those people purchasing hunting or fishing licenses — and associated supplies -about 20% of the population) contributed nearly as much (about $89 million) as the entire amount of state tax dollars provided to the DNR. I personally contributed about $300 in license fees last year, in addition to whatever I spent on ammunition, hunting gear, etc. that was subject to the excise tax. Hunters and anglers are disproportionately contributing to habitat acquisition and management — publicly accessible places that other users, for example bird watchers, hikers, paddlers, etc. can also enjoy.

Clearly, there are opportunities for “nonconsumptive” users of Iowa’s public lands and wildlife to contribute to the efforts of the Iowa DNR. People can choose to make donations of various kinds — typically volunteering time, money, or land. Their generosity is much appreciated. The State of Iowa has a program called the “Chickadee Checkoff” that provides a mechanism for tax deductible donations to the DNR. In 2024 this program brought in about $134,000 to help conserve wildlife in Iowa. This is a worthwhile contribution, but the dollar value is only about 0.2% of the dollars brought in yearly by hunting and fishing licenses.

I’m not arguing we need to require “bird watching licenses” or “state park passes,” but I do think that nonconsumptive users should recognize, and appreciate, that hunters and anglers are currently paying a substantial portion of the cost for their access to public natural areas and wildlife habitat. Nonconsumptive and consumptive users can (and should) work together to dramatically help expand and manage Iowa’s natural areas by encouraging the state Legislature to finally fund the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund that was approved as an Iowa constitutional amendment in 2010. This trust fund has languished for 15 years without funding while Iowa’s water quality issues and limited public access to natural areas have continued unabated.

Currently, there is an effort in the state Senate (SJR6) to repeal the trust fund and replace it with a fund to lower property taxes. While property taxes are a valid concern, the people of Iowa spoke quite clearly in 2010 (63% in favor) that they wanted the State to implement the Trust Fund to invest in natural resources.

Combining county, state, privately-owned but open to hunting (IHAP areas), and federally owned land there are about 650,000 acres of public hunting areas in Iowa. That corresponds to well less than 2 percent of Iowa’s land. According to the DNR, there were about 105,000 Iowa residents who purchased hunting licenses in 2023. There were also about 28,000 non-residents who purchased hunting licenses in 2023, for a ballpark total of about 130,000 hunters. That amounts to a total of about 5 acres of public land per hunter. Obviously, not all of these hunters are using public land all at the same time.

Still, as a person who has been a hunter in Iowa for well over 40 years, primarily on public land, I can tell you: “That ain’t enough.” What may be less obvious is that one hunter walking around in a small piece of public land can easily spook all the pheasants, deer, ducks, etc. off the property. The next hunter may find very little of what they are seeking.

These animals are very likely end up on private land, because that is what the vast majority of Iowa is. The animals will likely return to public land, which often has great habitat, but it may be days before they do so. One response to Iowa having a limited amount of public hunting land might be, “Well, just hunt on private land!” That can be considerably more challenging than it sounds. Just figuring out who might be the person to ask for permission, and how to contact them, can be difficult. Worse yet, the likelihood of getting a “yes” is often quite low. Many Iowa hunters spend time on both public and private land — but their access to private land is commonly through family or friends. Overall, most private land in Iowa is not available to be hunted by members of the general public. An Iowa hunter who hunts exclusively on private land is a very fortunate person indeed. Many of Iowa’s hunting opportunities are on public land.

Given the important role of hunters (and anglers) in funding natural resource conservation, encouraging more people to participate in such activities is clearly of value. This value includes both increased dollars for conservation due to license fees and Pittman-Robertson funds, as well as dollars spent by hunters as they pass through local communities buying gas, food, lodging, etc.

But — one of the main barriers to increasing participation in hunting in Iowa is the limited availability of places to go hunting. This makes the acquisition and management of publicly accessible land of very high importance. Some of that land will be open to hunting, other parcels will be “refuge” areas such as State Parks and waterfowl refuges. Both types of public land are of great value to wildlife and provide opportunities to engage people (especially young people) with wildlife and natural areas.

To truly care about conserving natural areas and wildlife for the long term it is essential to have many opportunities to interact with, and learn about, natural areas and wildlife. If we don’t have a sufficiently large fraction of our human population who truly care about natural areas and wildlife, we might just plow or pave over everything in the name of “progress.” Bird watching is a great way to learn to care about natural areas and wildlife. So is hunting. Let’s work together to make things better for wildlife and ourselves — and finally fund the Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund.

Jim Colbert is a retired Iowa State University biology professor. He lives in Ames.