thanx, Doug.
I think it's good to use our list serve to educate subscribers with facts. I
am doing what I can to get more information and appreciate what you have
shared.
Sue
----- Original Message -----
From: <[email protected]>
To: "IA-BIRD" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 10:07 AM
Subject: [ia-bird] Misinformation runs rampant
A big problem involves the fact that VERY few people, including some on
this list serve (and especially in the Legislature), understanding how DNR
is funded (over 250 different sources) and how lands are managed. Forestry
and Parks Bureaus face the biggest problems, because they are funded mostly
with general fund (tax) revenues. However, the Wildlife, Fisheries and Law
Enforcement Bureaus are funded mostly with F&W trust fund monies. That
comes from license sales and matching federal funds. Wildlife Bureau
manages--by far--the largest amount of DNR's land, and the F&W Trust fund
is what's used to staff and manage those lands. Those dollars ARE NOT YOUR
TAXPAYER DOLLARS! Besides using in-house staff to manage fish and wildlife
lands, DNR also has farm contracts on many areas, in which a neighboring
farmer conducts some of the maintenance in return for some farming rights.
Many in the legislature, especially the newly-elected firebrands who
openly express their dislike of DNR, use this fake "poor maintenance"
argument to elicit support for their DNR budget-cutting vendetta. In
fact, cutting DNR's budget will only exacerbate management problems for
Parks and Forestry, while REDUCING Fisheries and Wildlife's current
abilities at decent land management by not allowing vacant jobs to be
re-filled (those folks who actually do the maintenance).
As for land acquisition, much of the land purchased by DNR for Wildlife
and Fisheries comes from federal grants and matching funds from Habitat
Stamps, Ducks Stamps and even private contributions (DU, INHF, TNC, PF,
and many more), so that does not affect the state's budget either, because
those dollars many NOT BE USED for anything else. In fact, MANY federal
dollars stand to be lost if any bill passes that bans DNR land
acquisition.
I know the Iowa Bird List Serve is intended for bird reports and not these
political arguments--I don't like to see them any more than most of you.
But I'm sick and tired of the misinformation being spouted by our new
Legislature. So if you want to watch birds and hope they might survive in
decent habitat into Iowa's future, then everyone on this list serve needs
to be contacting their local Representative, to demand that funding be
restored to DNR and that there is no prohibition of land acquisition.
Now I'll pipe down and go back to looking for birds before the Legislature
acts to assure more will disappear.
DOUG HARR
President, Iowa Audubon
(retired DNR Wildlife Diversity Program administrator)
-----Original Message-----
From: Sue Yeakel
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 6:47 AM
To: IA-BIRD
Cc: IA-BIRD
Subject: [ia-bird] RE: Habitat and country roads
Thanx, Joe.
It helps to know how they are thinking. It does make sense that more land
would require more maintenance that would require more funding, which
would
mean more taxes. This must be one of the
'sacrifices' we are expected to make to balance the budget and stop
spending, painful as it is.
Sue
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thamnophis" <[email protected]>
To: "IA-BIRD" <[email protected]>
Cc: "IA-BIRD" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 10:18 PM
Subject: [ia-bird] RE: Habitat and country roads
I received the following two replies from my state reps. Comments?
Joe
Boone County
========================
Thank you for your e-mail on this very important bill. I appreciate
your taking the time to contact me with your thoughts and input.
I understand that the IDNR claims it does not have sufficient funds to
maintain the parks and land presently under its control. With that in
mind, combined with the current budget constraints, I believe it would
be irresponsible to add more land to the state's burden. From my
perspective, let's get our budget situation under control so we can
take care of what we have, then we can worry about the state
purchasing or acquiring more land.
Thank you again for your concern and your communication. If you have
further thoughts or issues, please feel free to contact me again.
Sincerely,
Chip Baltimore
=====
Thanks for taking the time to write. I appreciate the input. I farm
for a living and also consider myself a conservationist. That being
said, I'm not sure having the IDNR purchase more land really helps the
conservation effort.
More purchased land usually requires more people to manage that land
and I have had letters from people complaining about the current care
that land owned by the IDNR receives.
Perhaps with a new director, the IDNR will be able to handle more land
efficiently, but considering our current budget situation, keeping the
IDNR from acquiring even more ongoing costs seems appropriate.
What specific types of land purchases would you like to see continue?
Sincerely,
Jerry
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Please contribute your sightings to our list; it is only as good as
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Primary selection; channel 5/0 , alternate selection; channel 6/0
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This mailing list is sponsored by the Iowa Ornithologists' Union.
Membership available on-line at
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---
Please contribute your sightings to our list; it is only as good as members
make it!
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Primary selection; channel 5/0 , alternate selection; channel 6/0
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available on-line at http://www.iowabirds.org/iou/membership.asp.
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