Iowa Sustainable Wildlife Management
For County Historical Societies, Church Organizations
and any land owning non profit organization.

Contact Bill Kron 319-430-8220 for available free information.

 

Iowa’s wildlife is a valuable resource. People who view birds at a feeder, drive to a park to catch a glimpse of a deer, or plan a hunting trip appreciate wildlife. Iowans benefit from wildlife in many ways.

Wildlife-related license fees and travel expenditures paid by hunters not only boost the economy, but pay for conservation programs that provide wildlife restoration and protection for all wildlife in Iowa. Deer hunting contributes more than $80 million to Iowa’s economy each year.

Many businesses (sporting goods, ammunition, and birdseed manufacturers, as well as lodge, motel, restaurant, and convenience store owners) are dependent on people viewing, photographing, or hunting wildlife. Wildlife enriches our lives. Opportunities to participate in wildlife-related recreational activities improve the quality of life in Iowa.

What is Wildlife Management?

People can assist wildlife by creating habitat that better meets certain species’ needs. Habitat also can be restored (e.g., planting native trees in a harvested forest). Anything done to help wildlife can be called wildlife management, but a formal definition is the application of scientific knowledge and technical skills to protect, conserve, limit, enhance, or create wildlife habitat. Wildlife management also includes implementing laws regulating the use, kinds, and amounts of wildlife people can harvest. Laws that protect existing habitat are also wildlife management tools.

Wildlife biologists (professional managers) use carefully collected information to manage wildlife populations to achieve a variety of recreational and aesthetic benefits for people while ensuring the future of wildlife.

History of Wildlife Management

Prior to 1900, few laws or regulations were imposed on hunting wild animals in this country. Even species now considered nongame (non-hunted) were harvested during all seasons of the year. Market hunters harvested hundreds of thousands of animals to sell to a growing nation. They killed animals and marketed the meat for food, hides for clothing or trading, and feathers for decoration.

Laws were passed to protect wildlife from market hunting, but this was not the only problem. Settlers changed the habitat available to wildlife species. They plowed prairies, drained wetlands, and built towns. These activities, and unregulated hunting, caused drastic declines for many wildlife species. Predators, animals that hunt and kill other animals for food, (e.g., weasels, coyotes, foxes, wolves) were shot on sight and considered vermin because they were perceived as a threat to domestic sheep, chickens, or cattle as well as game animals.

Iowa’s "big game" or large animal species (e.g., bison, elk, white-tailed deer) had virtually disappeared by the late 1800s. Some people were concerned by these extirpations. Laws were enacted to "protect" game (hunted) animals by limiting hunting and removing predators. State game wardens were hired in the early 1900s to enforce these laws. Most of the funding for early wildlife management efforts came from the sale of hunting and fishing licenses and federal excise taxes on hunting and fishing equipment.

Many game populations continued to suffer, so managers tried to supplement them with animals raised in captivity, but this didn’t work either. Biologists conducted research to better understand species’ needs and realized habitat was a critical factor for wildlife survival, so efforts increased to obtain and enhance habitat. Extirpated species were reintroduced.

Habitat for game species benefited many nongame (non-hunted) animals, but specific funding for management of nongame species was not provided until 1981 when the "Chickadee Checkoff" was placed on Iowa tax forms. Donations from this tax check-off were used to fund the Nongame Program (now Wildlife Diversity), which is responsible for all nongame animals. National initiatives including "Teaming With Wildlife" and the "Conservation and Reinvestment Act" to provide long-term, stable funding for management of all wildlife species have not come to fruition.

Biologists now try to manage from a "landscape" perspective. This takes into consideration all plants and animals in an area, in contrast to management for a single species. Key indicator species are monitored, but the goal is to enhance the whole biological system. For example, landscape management strives to conserve an entire prairie system, complete with prairie chickens, skipper butterflies, pale purple coneflowers, and prairie rattlesnakes. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ MORE.