Single statewide duck zone will hurt rural businesses

By William Smith

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Iowa's Natural Resources Commission is pushing a statewide single-duck hunting zone and season that will hurt rural businesses.

These establishments - of many kinds and sizes - rely on recreation activity dollars in the fall months from duck hunters who travel the state to take advantage of the varied season dates currently afforded by different duck zones. A single statewide duck zone proposal reduces opportunity and will discourage recreational travel and spending.

Iowa is presently divided into a north zone and south zone - generally, U.S. Highway 30 serves as the dividing line. It's a structure that roughly approximates the different freeze-up dates and migration patterns of waterfowl in Iowa (the regular duck season in the south zone starts and ends one week later than the north zone). By offsetting the season dates by one week, Iowa hunters can and do travel to the north zone to take advantage of that opportunity. As the season in the north draws to a close, those hunters can and do travel to Iowa's south zone to hunt the remaining week there. This is a big deal.

Avid duck hunters have worked hard in recent years to preserve the use of offset zones, recognizing the economic benefits associated with expanded outdoor recreation. This year, an overwhelming 80 percent of the hunters surveyed by the Iowa DNR in the Missouri River valley also supported the implementation of a third zone along that river corridor. The Missouri Valley Waterfowlers Association championed this third zone as better suited to the migration patterns, hunting opportunities, and hunter preferences of the region, as well as creating new hunting options when the north and south zone seasons close.

A 2011 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report expected that, if an additional duck hunting zone increased the number of days hunters spent afield, their expenditures would rise by as much as 17 percent. The third zone along the Missouri would directly benefit businesses in western Iowa, keeping dollars in Iowa when those hunters might go elsewhere.

Why is this important now? Every five years, states can change the zoning and split-season configuration. Just last month, the Natural Resources Commission proposed a single statewide duck season structure that eliminates Iowa's ability to use zones for the next four years - a step backward from the status quo, to say nothing of embracing the opportunity of a third zone.

If you eliminate zones and the whole state opens and closes on the same day, there is no incentive for Iowa duck hunters to travel to take advantage of independent opening days. That means rural businesses like motels, gas stations, restaurants, sporting goods stores and other local shops will lose revenue. Is this the type of anti-commerce policies we should be pushing in Iowa when our rural main streets are already under stress? Shouldn't we be taking advantage of every opportunity to support and increase recreational economic activity in Iowa?

Iowa businesses who depend on recreational tourism should stand up with Iowa's waterfowling community and send the NRC, the governor's office and their legislators a message: Reject a statewide duck season that eliminates zones. We need three zones in Iowa for the sake of our hometown economies.

William Smith of Sioux City is president of the Missouri Valley Waterfowlers Association. Comments fhd101@cableone.net