Iowa hunters can pitch rule changes at local meetings

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources will host a series of public meetings across the state to recap the recent hunting seasons and discuss potential rule changes for hunting and trapping.

DNR’s annual public meeting series follows the close of most hunting and fur-harvester seasons in the state. Hunting data for 2025 shows that Iowans bagged nearly 102,000 deer and bought close to 43,000 annual hunting licenses.

The public meetings include presentations from DNR staff about the past hunting season and Todd Bishop, head of DNR’s wildlife bureau, said the staff will also collect feedback from Iowans and discuss potential rule changes. Bishop said the meetings are a great place to “ask questions and hear directly” from DNR staff.

DNR officials have said comments from the meetings will be compiled and considered before the department proposes any potential rule changes to the Natural Resource Commission.

According to a news release from the department, comments from Iowans at meetings in past years have resulted in changes to Canada goose hunting areas, season dates and bag limits. Public comments also influenced DNR to expand raccoon hunting and trapping and modify antlerless-deer quotas in certain areas of the state.

Meeting locations and dates

The meetings are free and open to the public. All of the scheduled meetings will take place in the evenings between March 2 and March 5.

Waverly, March 2, 6 p.m., Waverly Public Library, 1500 W. Bremer Avenue

Bloomfield, March 3, 6 p.m., Pioneer Ridge Nature Center, 1339 Hwy. 63

Boone, March 3, 6 p.m., Wildlife Research Station, 1436 255th Street

Burlington, March 3, 6 p.m., Burlington Public Library, 210 Court St.

Chariton, March 3, 6 p.m., Pin Oak Lodge, 45996 State Hwy. 14

Creston, March 3, 6 p.m., Performing Arts Building multi-purpose room (124), 1201 West Townline Street

Decorah, March 3, 7 p.m., Franklin W. Olin Building, Room 102, Luther College, 700 College Drive, next to the Prues Library

Des Moines, March 3, 6:45 p.m., Des Moines Izaak Walton, 4343 George Flagg Parkway

Maquoketa, March 3, 7 p.m., Hurstville Interpretive Center, 18670 63rd Street

Spencer, March 3, 6:30 p.m., Iowa Lakes Community College, 1900 Grand Ave. Suite B1, Entrance #1-West side of the North Mall

Iowa City, March 4, 5:30 p.m., Johnson County Extension Office, 3109 Old Hwy 218 South

Charles City, March 4, 6:30 p.m., Public Library Zastrow Room, 910 Clark Street

Okoboji, March 4, 6 p.m., Maser Monarch Lodge, 22785 Nature Center Road

Perry, March 4, 6 p.m., Dallas County Conservation Board, Forest Park Museum administration building, 14581 K Avenue

Algona, March 5, 7 p.m., Tietz Entrepreneurial Center at the Algona campus of Iowa Lakes Community College, 2111 Hwy 169 North

Council Bluffs, March 5, 5:30 p.m., Bass Pro Shops, 2901 Bass Pro Drive

Hinton, March 5, 5 p.m., Dennis L. Sohl Center for Outdoor Learning, Hillview Recreation Area, 25601 C60

Lake View, March 5, 6:30 p.m., Speaker Park Shelter House, 418 North Blossom Street

Toledo, March 5, 5:30 p.m., Tama County Nature Center at Otter Creek Lake Park, 2283 Park Road

Ventura, March 5, 6 p.m., Clear Lake Wildlife Unit Office, 15326 Balsam Ave.

2025 hunting data

In addition to the 42,868 annual hunting licenses purchased by residents, Iowans purchased more than 198,000 annual fishing licenses, more than 30,000 combination licenses for fishing, hunting and habitat and more than 47,000 combination licenses for hunting and habitat.

The DNR also sells licenses for multiple years, short seasons or for specific game, making the total number of sold licenses much higher.

The department’s deer and turkey harvest report for 2025 shows hunters harvested a total of 101,941 deer and 15,767 turkey across both spring and fall turkey seasons.

Hunters in Iowa were also asked to help monitor the spread of chronic wasting disease, a fatal neurological disease impacting white-tailed deer and other members of the deer family.

The state launched an updated response plan, ahead of the 2025 gun season for deer hunting, to try and better monitor the spread of the disease which has been present in Iowa since 2013. Hunters are asked to help the state by submitting samples of harvested deer to the department for testing.

The chronic wasting disease dashboard shows that in total, DNR detected the disease in 168 wild deer in 28 counties across the state in 2025. DNR collected just over 5,000 samples of wild deer to test for the disease in the 2025-2026 hunting season.

The dashboard shows that these figures continue to grow each year. Since 2013, chronic wasting disease has been detected in 691 deer across 39 Iowa counties.