(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has a series of town hall meetings scheduled to discuss possible changes to hunting rules and regulations and other topics. D-N-R spokesman, Mick Klemesrud, says the first meeting is scheduled for Wednesday in Sioux City. “We have 18 meetings set up across the state. And these are public meetings where our local staff will come in and provide a recap of the hunting and trapping seasons,” Klemesrud says. “They’ll give population updates, and they’ll talk about hunter participation, trapper participation and just what to expect and what we’re looking at as potential rule changes.”

He says one rule change involves the waterfowl hunting zones. “We are going to increase the size of the Missouri River Zone to actually go all the way to the Mississippi across southern Iowa to create kind of a new central zone, shift the southern border of the north zone up a little bit. And then modify the season dates accordingly,” according to Klemesrud. “So the southern zone will have later season dates, the central zone will have the old southern zone season dates, and the north zone will probably stay fairly close to what it has been.”

There could be some other rule changes as well. “We are also looking at expanding and increasing the number of otters that trappers can harvest. And there’s some other deer quotas, and things like that,” he says.  Klemesrud says they expect to have a good turnout. “Hunters like to talk about hunting and they like to come to these. They’ve got a like-minded audience — they’re hearing things that they enjoy — and hunter participation is definitely a part of these meetings,” Klemesrud says.

Comments collected from the public meetings will be considered along with other related comments received by the Iowa D-N-R prior to proposing changes to hunting rules and regulations. Proposed rules will be presented to the Natural Resource Commission during a regular public meeting for consideration and additional public comment.

Here are the AREA meeting dates, time and locations:

Sioux City, Feb. 19, 7 p.m., Dorothy Pecaut Nature Center, 4500 Sioux River Road
Council Bluffs Feb. 25, 7 p.m., Fish and Game Club, 531 Commanche Street
Creston, Feb. 27, 7 p.m., Multi-Purpose Room adjacent to the YMCA, Southwestern Community College, 1201 West Townline Street
Sac City, March 5, 7 p.m., Sac County Conservation Center at Hagge Park, 2970 280th Street