With the hunting season starting for waterfowl birds, there is a change to how the Department of Natural Resources is going to collect data.
DNR Conservation Officer for Guthrie County Jeremy King says that anyone wanting to hunt migratory game that includes geese, duck, doves and many more must register through the Harvest Information Program (HIP).
“Traditionally what has happened is when you go into the store and you buy your license and you get online and you buy a license when you click on the Migratory Game Bird and when you buy that for this, it would run through a series of questions. How many did you harvest? A 0 to 5 ducks last year or five plus. How did you hear Harvest 0 to 5 geese last year? Five plus. And we’ll walk you through those and you answer them and then I’ll sell you the license. Well, it doesn’t do that now, and that’s due to administrative changes.”
He says since this is new this year there will be a soft enforcement to educate the people on the new system.
“That information that the US Fish and Wildlife Service gets from that is very important. So they can kind of keep track of how many birds are being harvested and they use that for biological data. That’s like I said, it’s very important to set establishing seasons and stuff.
For more information you can contact the Iowa DNR website or the Guthrie County Recorder’s Office.