Efforts to hamper public land acquisitions

UPDATE -- this bill is inactive for 2023.  It failed to pass through the funnel, where bills are winnowed if they have not moved through several steps of the legislative process.

A bill has been moving through the legislative process that would hamper the ability of the Department of Natural Resources to acquire additional public lands. 

SF516 has already passed the Senate and two House subcommittees.  It will soon be taken up by a House State Government subcommittee. 

What you can do

1. Ask members of the State Government Committee to oppose SF516: jane.bloomingdale@legis.iowa.gov , austin.harris@legis.iowa.gov , amy.nielsen@legis.iowa.gov , austin.baeth@legis.iowa.gov , michael.bergan@legis.iowa.gov , jacob.bossman@legis.iowa.gov , taylor.collins@legis.iowa.gov , jeff.cooling@legis.iowa.gov , jon.dunwell@legis.iowa.gov , eric.gjerde@legis.iowa.gov , cindy.golding@legis.iowa.gov , craig.johnson@legis.iowa.gov , bobby.kaufmann@legis.iowa.gov , shannon.lundgren@legis.iowa.gov , heather.matson@legis.iowa.gov , mike.sexton@legis.iowa.gov , brent.siegrist@legis.iowa.gov , megan.srinivas@legis.iowa.gov , sharon.steckman@legis.iowa.gov , john.wills@legis.iowa.gov , derek.wulf@legis.iowa.gov , david.young@legis.iowa.gov , adam.zabner@legis.iowa.gov
2. Ask your representative to oppose SF516.  To look up your house member, see www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/house      To find your legislator, see www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/find

Why Sierra Club opposes the bill

• The bill requires that a higher priority is to be given to maintaining or preserving existing public lands over acquiring additional land.  We do not support this, since Iowa is 47th in the nation in the percentage of the state held as public lands.  Public lands are important in a state that has very little public land.  The DNR lands are mostly highly erodible or floodplains which are not farmable and, thus, are not destroying opportunities for beginning farmers, as some legislators contend.
• Further, the legislature has been under-funding the Department of Natural Resources for years.  What this will do, in essence, is to reduce land acquisitions for parks, trails, and other recreation areas.
• Although this is being sold as a way of establishing priorities for the Department of Natural Resources, there could be huge unintended consequences.  In fact, this bill requires the DNR is to prioritize partnerships with private landowners over acquiring additional public land.  There is no guarantee that those private lands will be available for all Iowans to use and enjoy.
• Iowans love the public lands, but we also know that we need to expand the amount of public land. 
• This bill requires a duplication of the plans that are already in existence.  There are already plans in place to guide future development, acquisition, and maintenance of our parks, including the Wildlife Diversity Action Plan, Department of Transportation Plan for State Recreation Trails, State Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan, and others.