Birders It seems to me that there is a fair amount of ignorance floating around relative to where the money comes from to purchase much of the land that the DNR manages and also to manage that habitat. The response from a Boone County resident talks about poorly maintained parks. I suspect the respondent was referring to nearby Ledges State Park which indeed is funded by state funds. The state parks have been poorly funded for years and the responsibility falls on the state. They have failed to do their part, even though the parks are very popular. Twenty some years ago, a state park fee was instituted but was very unpopular with the general public. In response to that loud outcry, the fee was eventiually dropped (by the legislature) but in the process, REAP was started by the legislature with part of the deal being to use REAP money to help make up for the lost state park funds. Now REAP funds are to be cut. Can you connect the dots?
As far as DNR wildlife lands, there is little (no?) direct state general funding used for those purchases. Major sources include license fees, various wildlife stamp fees, money raised by various non profits in the state which then purchase land, and money from a federal excise tax collected on the sale of various types of outdoor equipment (e.g., guns, ammunition, other hunting items, etc). The latter fund, P-R funds, come back to the state and are a major source of funding for the management of those lands. In the past 25 years, there have been several sources of federal funds for land purchase which the state has taken advantage of. Those are federal tax dollars and Iowa citizens have a right to a share of them. Iowa has done well with some of those programs and has added a substantial amount of new public lands through them. Putting a freeze on new purchases through these funds won't save the state any money. It just means that the money will go to other states. And landowners in Iowa, who want to sell their land for such purposes, will lose out on a potential buyer. I no longer live in Iowa but supported many of the above programs during the 30 plus years I was a resident and continue to do so. And the results of the constitutional amendment issue from last November show that a strong majority of Iowans favor more public land. Stand up and be counted. Jim Dinsmore The Villages, FL --- Please contribute your sightings to our list; it is only as good as members make it! --- Birding channel recommendation for FRS/GMRS radio use: Primary selection; channel 5/0 , alternate selection; channel 6/0 --- This mailing list is sponsored by the Iowa Ornithologists' Union. Membership available on-line at http://www.iowabirds.org/iou/membership.asp. ----- You are currently subscribed to ia-bird as: [email protected]
