LEE COUNTY – A resident who approached Lee County Supervisors got some time Monday afternoon devoted to what supervisors called deer overpopulation in the county.
The name of the resident wasn’t divulged after Monday’s regular meeting of the Lee County Supervisors in Fort Madison, but the topic came up during a workshop that followed.
The resident lives just outside Fort Madison in county jurisdiction and was complaining that deer damage her plantings and have done damage to two of her vehicles, including one vehicle that was totaled.
Supervisor Garry Seyb said cities can work with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to have a program to bow hunt within city limits, but Fort Madison doesn’t have that program in place. Keokuk does have that program.
“This resident does live on the edge and there are people in town who are hand feeding them and, when you do that, then they bring friends and more friends and then there are 15 and 20 of them coming through,” he said.
“I expressed to her to get ahold of the city. Keokuk has a plan where they hunt and they have 150 tags and they qualify with their bows and have rules and regulations where they can and can’t hunt. That takes 150 deer or so out of city limits.”
He said it does help control the population. But, as soon as hunting starts out in the county, the deer rush to the cities. Seyb said he’s participated in the Keokuk program every year for the past dozen years and it has grown since then.
He said Keokuk issued 17 buck tags which meant there were 51 does taken because you have to get three does before you can shoot a buck.
Seyb said the resident was getting 14 to 15 deer through her property. He said in the county, they can actually have hunters come onto her property. Lee County Recorder Nancy Booten said it was a scary proposition if someone were to miss. But she said people are feeding them in her neighborhood, where the resident who complained also lives.
“I don’t want anybody shooting in my neighborhood. What if they miss? Not everyone is a good shot,” she said.
Seyb said he recommended the resident work with the city to get involved with the program. He said he doesn’t know what the requirements are as far as acreage owned to be able to hunt. He said residents should get ahold of the DNR for that information.
Seyb said Burlington, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa City, and Cedar Rapids all have bow hunting programs.
“Sometimes we laugh about it, but it is a big deal,” Seyb said. “In Keokuk, they’re taking 80 some odd deer at a minimum. One year they were at, like, 90 and that’s deer that aren’t reproducing next year.”
He said most hunters you will never see hunting and they must do it from an elevated position to prevent arrows from getting away. He also said the county has no zoning or ordinances governing private hunting acreage, so regulations are DNR regulations not county regulations.
No action was taken on the issue, but the recommendation was to talk to Fort Madison about looking into the program.
He said almost all hunting seasons are closed now.
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