Excerpt from Higgins Article
Iowa Deer Hunters-
Like you, I was fortunate to live in a state with terrific
whitetail hunting. Unfortunately the politics of my home state of Illinois has
slowly destroyed what was once North Americas premier whitetail herd. Iowa now
stands at a crossroads; your whitetail herd will either continue to be wisely
managed or you might end up like Illinois and see politics destroy an
incredible resource. I really do not have a dog in this fight. I plan to be an
Illinois resident for life and my free time is spent trying to turn around the
direction our whitetail herd is headed. I urge you to not make the same mistake
that Illinois hunters did. As an Iowa hunter you need to fight this every step
of the way. Get organized and maintain non-resident hunters at a reasonable
level. Your kids and grandkids deserve to hunt a well managed whitetail herd
rather than a mis-managed disaster. Best of luck and maybe someday I will run
into you in the Iowa woods once I properly draw an Iowa non-resident tag. Funny
thing is, I never thought I would have to leave my home state to find great
whitetail hunting.
Don Higgins - North American
Whitetail contributor and author of "Hunting
Trophy Whitetails in the Real World"
Excerpt from Don’s article:
The approach that is
now taken in Illinois in regards to the management of our deer herd is to
ignore sound biological science and manage by politics. The great deer herd
created decades ago by foresighted biologists in Illinois is on the cusp of
being destroyed. Special interest groups have seen the dollar value of our deer
herd and sought to exploit it. Even the legislature has gotten involved by
raising the cost of non-resident deer hunting permits while also increasing
their number to garner more dollars for the state coffers. They fail to realize
that the value is in a well-managed deer herd, not simply in the deer.
Special interest
groups like outfitters and the Farm Bureau got their foot in the door because a
well-managed herd allowed them to profit. Through short sightedness and sheer
ignorance of proper deer management they have used politics to push the
Illinois deer herd down a path to destruction. Politics is clearly destroying
the future of our deer herd for instant financial gain without regards to the
health of the resource we are leaving the next generation. While many states
have made conscious efforts to improve their own deer herds, Illinois politics
has exploited ours while also slowly destroying it.
Our neighboring Iowa
serves as a great example of a state that protects the resource while striving
to improve it, all while looking out for its residents. Although Iowa and
Illinois encompass almost exactly the same land mass, Iowa allows a fraction of
the number of non-resident hunters that Illinois does (2,100 archery non-residents
in Iowa vs. 25,000 for Illinois). Iowa does this while also having only a
fraction the number of resident hunters. Iowa also allocates those non-resident
permits by region and employs hunting regulations and season dates that protect
the resource. It is no accident that Iowa has clearly surpassed Illinois on the
list of states with a quality deer herd.
If the trend
continues and Illinois implements the changes proposed by the current task
force we will fall much further down the list. When this happens we will all
lose. We owe it to our children and future generations to turn things around
and once again make Illinois home of the premier whitetail herd in North
America. We have the terrain, the climate, the genetics and we have the people
capable of doing it but we have Illinois politics taking our most precious
natural resource in the wrong direction.
