2023 Iowa Code › Title XI - NATURAL RESOURCES › Chapter 483A - FISHING AND HUNTING LICENSES, CONTRABAND, AND GUNS › Section 483A.3 - Wildlife habitat fee.

483A.3 Wildlife habitat fee.
1. a. A resident or nonresident person required to have a hunting or fur harvester license shall not hunt or trap unless the person purchases a hunting or fur harvester license that includes the wildlife habitat fee, in an amount established by rules adopted by the commission pursuant to section 483A.1.
b. Residents who have permanent disabilities or who are younger than sixteen or older than sixty-five years of age may purchase a hunting or fur harvester license that does not include the wildlife habitat fee.
c. All wildlife habitat fees shall be administered in the same manner as hunting and fur harvester licenses except all revenue derived from wildlife habitat fees shall be used within the state of Iowa for habitat development and shall be deposited in the state fish and game protection fund, except as provided in subsection 2. The revenue may be used for the matching of federal funds. The revenues and any matched federal funds shall be used for acquisition of land, leasing of land, or obtaining of easements from willing sellers for use as wildlife habitats. Notwithstanding the exemption provided by section 427.1, any land acquired with the revenues and matched federal funds shall be subject to the full consolidated levy of property taxes, which shall be paid from the income generated from those lands or, if no such income is generated, from the wildlife habitat fee revenues. In addition the revenue may be used for the development and enhancement of wildlife lands and habitat areas.
d. Not less than three dollars from each wildlife habitat fee shall be allocated as specified in section 483A.3B and not less than fifty percent of the balance of each fee shall be used by the commission to enter into agreements with county conservation boards or other public agencies in order to carry out the purposes of this section. However, the state share of funding of those agreements provided by the revenue from wildlife habitat fees shall not exceed seventy-five percent.
2. Up to sixty percent of the revenues from wildlife habitat fees which are not required under subsection 1 to be used by the commission to enter into agreements with county conservation boards or other public agencies may be credited to the wildlife habitat bond fund as provided in section 483A.53.
3. Notwithstanding subsections 1 and 2, any increase in wildlife habitat fee revenues collected on or after December 15, 2018, pursuant to this section as a result of wildlife habitat fee increases established by rules adopted pursuant to section 483A.1, shall be used by the commission for any of the purposes set forth in this section or in section 483A.3B, except that such increases in revenues collected shall not be used by the commission for the purpose of land acquisition. The commission shall not reduce on an annual basis for these purposes the amount of other funds being expended as of December 15, 2018.
4. A multi-year hunting license purchased pursuant to section 483A.9A, includes the payment of a wildlife habitat fee for each of the years for which the license is valid and those fees shall be used as provided in this section.
[C79, 81, §110.3]
84 Acts, ch 1260, §3; 86 Acts, ch 1114, §2; 86 Acts, ch 1231, §1
C93, §483A.3
96 Acts, ch 1129, §98; 98 Acts, ch 1199, §6, 27; 98 Acts, ch 1223, §30; 2007 Acts, ch 194, §3; 2012 Acts, ch 1096, §6, 23; 2018 Acts, ch 1159, §2 – 5, 28
Referred to in §427.1(24)(a), 483A.3B, 805.8B(3)(b)
For applicable scheduled fine, see §805.8B, subsection 3, paragraph b