New Rules Create Third Duck and Goose Hunting Zone in Iowa
OutdoorHub 10.09.12
State Senator Merlin Bartz (R-Grafton) today announced that the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Natural Resources Commission has adopted rules which create a new zone for duck and goose hunting. The new zone will be referred to as the Missouri Zone.
The rules package was reviewed at the October 9, 2012 meeting of the Administrative Rules Review Committee (ARRC), of which Senator Bartz is a current member and past chair.
“The advantage of this new zone is that hunters will have the opportunity to hunt a week later and the DNR will have the flexibility to adjust the season dates if the biological carrying capacity warrants doing so,” Bartz said.
The new Missouri Zone will be that part of Iowa west of Interstate 29 and north of State Highway 175. The north duck hunting zone follows along the new Missouri zone to State Highway 175, east to State Highway 37, southeast to State Highway 183, northeast to State Highway 141, east to U.S. Highway 30, and along U.S. Highway 30 to the Iowa-Illinois border. The south zone will be the remainder of the state.
“I appreciate the fact that the department incorporated some of the public comment concerns into the final rules package. This is how the administrative rules process is supposed to work,” Bartz concluded.
Under the rules, the five day September duck season will remain in place which is highly valued by many hunters, and other rules revisions were made to ensure that seasons open on weekends. The adopted rule is ARC 307C which was published in the September 5th, 2012 bulletin.
