{"id":1473,"date":"2015-09-12T09:21:17","date_gmt":"2015-09-12T14:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1473"},"modified":"2015-09-12T09:21:37","modified_gmt":"2015-09-12T14:21:37","slug":"1473","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1473","title":{"rendered":"Rock The Boat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"webeagle\"<\/a>Sometimes you win; sometimes you lose; and sometimes you win losing. The latter is what happened to Lead Is Poison Coalition (LIP-C) on Tuesday morning, September 8, 2015.<\/p>\n

ARC 2087C is a proposed rule (Intended Action) that amends \u201cthe season dates, bag limits, possession limits, shooting hours and areas open to hunting for\u201d snipe, woodcock, mourning doves, and a few other avian species. Last month, LIP-C submitted testimony to the Natural Resources Commission (NRC) requesting that it remove \u201cEurasian collared-dove\u201d from the list. In 2011, the Iowa Legislature passed, and governor enacted Senate File 464, \u201cAn Act allowing the establishment of an open season for hunting Mourning Doves.\u201d The law does not say \u201cdoves\u201d; it does not say \u201cEurasian collared-doves\u201d; it does not say \u201crock dove\u201d; it does not say \u201cturtle dove\u201d; it specifically and unequivocally says \u201cMourning Dove\u201d.<\/p>\n

Since the NRC has incorporated Mourning Doves into the rules defining bag limits, shooting hours, etc., it has included the Eurasian collared-dove as if the legislature had passed a law establishing the open season for Mourning Doves AND Eurasian collared-doves. It did not. LIP-C has been struggling for years to have the Eurasian collared-dove removed from the rules because of one reason only \u2013 the NRC does not have authority to add anything beyond the statutory authority given it by the law that was enacted.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, September 8, the Iowa Legislative Rules Review Committee met, and one of the rules reviewed was the controversial ARC 2087C. You know it\u2019s controversial when people entering the room in early September find standing room only and the Department of Natural Resources\u2019 director is in attendance.<\/p>\n

The NRC attorney claims the Commission has the authority to include Eurasian collared-doves because the definition of \u201cColumbidae\u201d in section 481A broadens the scope of game birds with the definition\u2019s introduction of \u201csuch as\u201d. \u201c\u2019Such as\u2019 is legally considered to be an expander\u201d, she said. What she failed to mention is that the definition ends with the word \u201conly\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cGame\u201d<\/em> means all of the animals specified in this subsection except those designated as not protected<\/strong>, and includes the heads, skins, and any other parts, and the nests and eggs of birds and their plumage.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Anatidae:\u00a0\u00a0such as swans, geese, brant, and ducks.<\/li>\n
  2. The Rallidae:\u00a0\u00a0such as rails, coots, mudhens, and gallinules.<\/li>\n
  3. The Limicolae:\u00a0\u00a0such as shorebirds, plovers, surfbirds, snipe, woodcock, sandpipers, tattlers, godwits, and curlews.<\/li>\n
  4. The Gallinae:\u00a0\u00a0such as wild turkeys, grouse, pheasants, partridges, and quail.<\/li>\n
  5. The Columbidae:\u00a0\u00a0such as<\/strong> mourning doves and wild rock doves only<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Iowa Code \u00a7 481A.1(21)(2015)(Emphasis added). Notice that the Columbidae is the only species that ends with the qualifier \u201conly\u201d.<\/p>\n

    The Eurasian collared dove is not a protected bird. The only members of the Columbidae family that are protected species are:<\/p>\n

    DOVE, Inca, Columbina inca<\/em>
    \nMourning, Zenaida<\/em> macroura<\/em>
    \nWhite-tipped, Leptotila verreauxi<\/em>
    \nWhite-winged, Zenaida asiatica<\/em>
    \nZenaida, Zenaida<\/em> aurita<\/em><\/p>\n

    Title 50, section 10.13, Code of Federal Regulations (50 CFR 10.13). The Eurasian collared-dove, Streptopelia decaocto, falls into a category of non-protected \u201cFamily Columbidae\u201d, which includes the Rock Pigeon, the Island collared-dove, and many more.<\/p>\n

    The Commission\u2019s attorney has said that, since the Commission may protect a bird that is considered protected, it may also protect a bird that is not protected. Possibly so, but that doesn\u2019t mean that the Commission can include what it wants to include when the law is narrowly tailored to one specifically indentified bird \u2013 the Mourning Dove.<\/p>\n

    Now here\u2019s the crazy part. \u201cThere is justifiable concern, that over time,\u201d the Commission\u2019s lawyer said, \u201cthere is a possibility that the Eurasian collared-dove could push Mourning Doves and other native birds out of their native habitat, which could impact their (sic) population of birds\u201d. We don\u2019t disagree, if we understand her babble correctly. But then, why would you want to protect them? From that point on, the protection of Eurasian collared-doves became the theme rather than disrespect for the law.<\/p>\n

    Nevertheless, Senator Courtney pushed on: \u201cI want you to understand, I am not opposed to dove hunting, but I am opposed to not following legislation.\u201d Sen. Courtney made our point! But no one seemed to listen.<\/p>\n

    There was considerable banter between Rep. Rick Olson and the Commission\u2019s attorney about the wild rock dove. Neither the attorney nor Rep. Olson knew what a wild rock dove looked like. A wild Rock Dove is a common pigeon. Later, during testimony, a self-described wildlife biologist, and a deputy director, claimed that there were no rock doves in Iowa; that they were very limited. Rep. Olson asked which answer was it \u2013 there are no rock doves in Iowa, or they are very limited? He received an identical response. The meeting over this rule was getting almost comical.<\/p>\n

    Rep. Olson asked if there were any other doves in Iowa besides the Mourning Dove, the Eurasian collared-dove and the very limited non-existent rock doves. No one knew the answer. The deputy director, relying upon information from staff, claimed that the Mourning Dove and the Eurasian collared-dove are the only two doves hunted in Iowa. That still doesn\u2019t answer the question of why the bureaucrats cannot see beyond the very narrowly-tailored law that establishes a hunting season for Mourning Doves only.<\/p>\n

    So, the Commission and all of its supporters won. Or did they? In the end, the non-protected invasive species (the Eurasian collared-dove) is protected. It\u2019s like having the Iowa Dept. of Agriculture and Land Stewardship adopting a rule to protect the Canadian thistle.<\/p>\n

    The sad end to this story is the fact that bureaucracy won, and legislators lost authority.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Sometimes you win; sometimes you lose; and sometimes you win losing. The latter is what happened to Lead Is Poison Coalition (LIP-C) on Tuesday morning, September 8, 2015. ARC 2087C is a proposed rule (Intended Action) that amends \u201cthe season … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264,17],"tags":[582,583,581,487,360,580,271,585,584],"class_list":["post-1473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fairness","category-issues","tag-columbidae","tag-eurasion-collared-dove","tag-iowa-legislative-rules-review-committee","tag-iowa-natural-resource-commission","tag-lead-is-poison-coalition","tag-lip-c","tag-mourning-doves","tag-rep-rick-olson","tag-senator-tom-courtney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1473"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1475,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1473\/revisions\/1475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}