February 9, 2012

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House votes for lead shot during dove hunting season (audio)

February 2, 2012 By

The Iowa House has voted to overturn a state commission’s decision that would have forbidden the use of lead shot when hunting doves in Iowa. 

“The Natural Resources Commission overstepped its authority and the intention of the legislature,” said Representative Clel Baudler, a Republican from Greenfield.

Lawmakers voted last year to allow dove hunting, but the Iowa Natural Resources Commission drafted a rule that would have required the use of steel shot rather than lead shot during the dove hunting season. Representative Mary Mascher, a Democrat from Iowa City, said the commission did the research, looking at the hunting rules in other states, and did what they thought was best.

“I do not think it is in the best wisdom of this state and the people of this state for us to overturn that,” Mascher said.

Some have argued lead shot is toxic to birds and other wildlife that eat the stray bullets that wind up on the ground or in the water. Representative Anesa Kajtazovic, a Democrat from Waterloo, supports a ban on lead shot.

“Lead has been proven to be harmful. I have done much research on this,” Katazovic said. “The most surprising feedback that I’ve had from my constituents has been from those who do hunt, from hunters telling me, ‘You know, lead is not necessary.’”

Baudler said other “scientific studies” dispute the idea lead shot is a threat to wildlife.

“The intent of the legislation that we passed last year was extremely clear,” Baudler said. “…This is about policy and the administration of rules.”

AUDIO of House debate. 

A senate committee has endorsed the idea of allowing lead shot during dove hunting season, so the next stop for this debate is in the full Senate.

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,

Cedar Falls man dies while ice fishing

February 2, 2012 By

A Cedar Falls man is dead after falling through the ice while ice fishing Wednesday night. Waterloo Fire rescue crews said the thin ice on George Wyth Lake gave way causing 51-year old Wade Clark to fall in Wednesday night.

Clark was taken to a Waterloo hospital where he later died. Clark was unresponsive when rescue crews pulled him from the ice waters. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources had been issuing warnings about the weakening ice due to the unseasonably warm weather.

Clarks death is the third to occur this week. A couple died in a rural Madison County pond on Monday in a similar accident.

By Scott Fenzloff, KCNZ, Cedar Falls

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, News Tagged With:

Warm weather leads to warning about ice fishing

February 1, 2012 By

The amount and quality of ice on most of Iowa’s lakes has been drastically reduced with temperatures hitting the 50′s and 60′s this week. Iowa Department of Natural Resources fisheries biologist Ben Dodd says the cold spell in January wasn’t enough to build a lot of solid ice.

“And with this warm weather, it’s melted quite quickly,” Dodd said. “We really aren’t recommending folks get out on the ice. We’ve already had one incident in Madison County. We know it’s tempting to get out there, but we recommend people stay off at this point.”

Authorities say 64-year-old Linda Jones and her friend, 80-year-old George Pierce, drowned Monday while ice fishing on a farm pond in Madison County. Dodd said many ponds and lakes had good ice as recently as Saturday, but Monday’s temperatures in the mid 60′s forced the D.N.R. to cancel some trout stocking and ice fishing events scheduled for this coming weekend in central Iowa.

“The ice was just not thick enough for doing that this year,” Dodd said. Ice fishing conditions are slightly better north of Highway 20, but Dodd said anglers are encouraged to use caution even in northern Iowa.

By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City

Filed Under: News, Recreation & Entertainment, Weather Tagged With: ,

Ban on lead shot during dove season moves closer to repeal

January 27, 2012 By

Hunters packed a legislative committee room Thursday afternoon to watch the House Natural Resources Committee vote on a proposal that would let hunters use lead shot during dove hunting season. The Iowa Natural Resources Commission voted last summer to ban lead shot during dove season, but Representative Guy Vander Linden of Pella called that an overreach.

“In the House last year we specifically voted on a lead shot ban and voted it down. The Natural Resources Commission took it upon themselves to reverse that and that to me is the issue here,” Vander Linden said, “not the lead shot, but that a commission is trying to usurp the authority of the legislature.”

 The committee voted 17-to-four to overturn the commission’s decision to require non-toxic steel shot during dove hunting season. Representative Sharon Steckman of Mason City argued “the science is there” to indicate lead is a danger to humans and animals.

 ”They’ve taken it out of paint,” she says. “They’ve taken it out of everything.” Representative Curtis Hanson of Fairfield was another “no” vote on the issue.

“I’m concerned about the overall impact, the overall consequences, the cumulative effect of lead in our environment,” Hanson said. “Until that science is clear, I think that we should err on the side of safety.” Iowa Firearms Coalition president Jeff Burkett says non-toxic steel shot may not be appropriate for some guns.

“There’s some concern about, especially the older the gun is, about the safety of using steel shot, doing damage to the gun,” Burkett says. “And so there is a legitimate public safety concern that we have.”

 Steel shot could cause an older gun to malfunction, according to Burkett, injuring the hunter who’s firing it and others who might be nearby. The issue next goes before the full House for debate.

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Getting the lead in, rather than out, for 2012 dove season

January 19, 2012 By

Mourning dove.

The days may be numbered for a state rule that bans the use of lead shot when hunting mourning doves.

Lawmakers established a dove hunting season in Iowa last year and the state’s Natural Resources Commission later voted to require “non-toxic” shot after critics complained lead shot was an environmental hazard.

But two subcommittees — one in the Iowa House, the other in the Iowa Senate — have now voted to over-ride that rule and let dove hunters use lead shot. Seventy-nine-year-old Lyle Goodrich says he can’t use the “non-toxic” shot in his light-weight gun.

“You cannot shoot steel through it,” Goodrich says. “It’ll ruin the barrels on it.” Hunters like Goodrich also complain that “non-toxic” steel shot is dramatically more expensive.

Cynthia Hanson who’s with a group called “Lead is Poison” says the doves who aren’t killed during the hunting season eat the lead shot left behind.

“It’s not going to be an overnight decimation of the doves,” she says. “But we will slowly decimate that dove population by poisoning them.”

Hunters say there are isolated incidents of doves eating lead shot and they discount studies suggesting it’s harmful for humans to eat game killed with lead shot. Terry Little is with the Iowa Outdoor Partnership.

“There have been a couple that show that people that eat game meat do have slightly elevated (lead) levels,” he says. “But then so do people over 65 and people that live in older homes.”

Legislative leaders predict both the House and Senate will eventually act to overturn the commission-approved ban on lead shot for hunting mourning doves in Iowa.

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation, News, Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Venison keeps local lockers busy

January 16, 2012 By

Iowa has more than 80 custom meat lockers that process farm-raised pork and beef, but at this time of year, they’re busy with another type of meat — venison. John Lawrence, a livestock specialist at the Iowa State University extension, says many consumers are turning to venison as the costs of more traditional meat products rise.

He says as venison grows in popularity, it’s keeping many small town facilities busy. “Particularly at this time of year, we think about deer season and the number of deer that are processed through these small plants to the point that if I wanted to have a hog butchered to put in my freezer, I might have to wait until February to get it in because they’re processing the deer from hunting season.”

Although there’s nearly one of these processing facilities per county, many struggle to pay a competitive wage while at the same time being large enough to support any family members who may eventually take over. Lawrence says while these facilities have plenty of work for the next few weeks, it’s sometimes a struggle the rest of the year.

He says, “Many of those same business challenges we see in agriculture and up and down Main Street, and if we aren’t able to bridge those gaps and solve those problems, we see a lot of those smaller, family-owned businesses go by the wayside.” Lawrence says in some cases, the custom processor brings more business into town when people come to pick up their meat.

According to the Iowa Department of Agriculture’s website, the state has 83 custom meat lockers, with another 38 state-inspected facilities.

Filed Under: Business, News Tagged With:

Deer hunter dies after falling out of tree stand in Monona County

January 11, 2012 By

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says a Harlan man died in a deer hunting accident Tuesday evening in Monona County.

The D.N.R. says 21-year-old Corey Custer was bow hunting southeast of Onawa. He was coming out of his tree stand at approximately 7 p.m. when he fell approximately 18-23 feet to the ground.

Custer suffered head injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

By Joel McCall, KNOD, Harlan

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, News Tagged With: ,
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