Below is some information that was compiled by a friend of the Iowa Sportsman’s Club, Brent Johnson. This information shows the deer harvest numbers as provided by the Iowa DNR, since 2006 when Iowa changed to the telecheck harvest reporting system. These were categorized by the NR zones, in order to give a more localized view.
Statewide:
By Zone, for the Zone with a majority of the habitat in Iowa:
Based on these trend lines, it’s easier to see that our states’ deer harvest totals have been trending down for almost 20 years. While the argument for the reason behind that is widely debated, the Iowa Sportsman’s Club believes it is a “death by many cuts”. A major increase in predator populations, EHD cycling through the state in a more wide-spread fashion, increased hunting activity during COVID shutdowns, destruction of habitat acres…..all combine to spell bad news for the whitetail population in Iowa.
While some of that is out of our control, here are the 2 things we can control: our actions, and our voice. As we work alongside the Iowa DNR to keep populations at an acceptable level, we as hunters need to be the final deciding factor. If you’re not seeing the number of deer you want to, we encourage you to hunt with a future population in mind. We may need to reduce our take for a few years in order to see an increase again, with all of those other factors stacked against deer. We can also shift our hunting efforts from 100% whitetail, to an aggressive targeting of predators, through calling or trapping. We can do our part to increase habitat acres, or increase the quality of the habitat already there.
Finally, we can use our voice. The Iowa Sportsman’s Club has a salaried lobbying effort and great relationships at the state capital, where we spend uncounted hours meeting with our state legislators, the Governor’s staff, and the Natural Resources Committee. Without the support of memberships, donations, and attendance to our annual fundraising events, we wouldn’t be able to keep that voice for Iowa Hunters and Anglers. There are several forces coming against us in this coming legislative session trying to reduce the population even further. Increased tag numbers/options, destruction of habitat through the removal of the Forest Reserve program, cutting of funds for CRP and EQIP habitat programs, increased seasons and weapons…. it’s all on the table. We need to come together and make our unified voice heard this legislative session.
