Iowa’s Yellow River State Forest is in extreme northeast Iowa. (Photo courtesy of Iowa Department of Natural Resources)
Legislation that would limit how the Iowa Department of Natural Resources can obtain land for public recreation received no support from an Iowa House of Representatives subcommittee on Thursday.
House File 2104 would prevent the DNR from acquiring land at auctions or from not-for-profit groups that obtained it in a “competitive manner.”
An identical bill was advanced Wednesday by an Iowa Senate subcommittee.
“At this time it would be considered dead,” said Rep. Norlin Mommsen, R-DeWitt, who led the House subcommittee on Thursday.
Mommsen said the bill unduly targets the DNR, has ambiguous wording and infringes private property rights.
“That’s a foundation of our constitution, what makes America what it is,” he said.
The legislation is the latest of repeated attempts by agriculture and livestock groups to keep land in private ownership, primarily to increase the availability of low-cost pasture land for starting cattle producers.
“Our farmers, landowners have concerns about the state competing against them to acquire land,” said Kevin Kuhle, of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation.
It is DNR policy to avoid auctions for land acquisitions under most circumstances, and Kuhle said that should be strictly codified in state law.
But the proposed legislation was met overall with heavy resistance from environmental and hunting groups along with numerous residents, who viewed it as an assault on their desires to expand the amount of publicly available space for recreation and other benefits.
“I feel strongly that this could affect people’s sanity, to make it simple and clear,” said Randy McPherren, a farmer and board member of the Iowa Bowhunter’s Association.
Others rejected the idea that the DNR poses such a great risk to the availability of agricultural land to warrant such legislation. They pointed to urban sprawl and its consumption of high-quality cropland, and to farmers themselves.
“The only thing that keeps the young farmer from getting started — and the small farmer from getting bigger — is the big farmer who’s got more money, because he’ll pay more money for that land than it could ever produce farming,” said Fred Long, president of the Iowa Conservation Alliance.
Opponents further argued that the “competitive manner” restriction for not-for-profit organizations is overly broad and has the potential to eliminate all DNR acquisitions from those groups.
Mommsen and his two colleagues on the subcommittee — J.D. Scholten, D-Sioux City, and Brad Sherman, R-Williamsburg — opposed the bill.
The Senate version was recommended by a 2-1 subcommittee vote on Wednesday, with Sens. Tom Shipley, R-Nodaway, and Annette Sweeney, R-Alden, in favor. That bill has not yet been scheduled for consideration by the Senate Natural Resources and Environment Committee.
The post House panel rejects bill to restrict DNR land purchases appeared first on Iowa Capital Dispatch.