I just joined this site a few days ago and love it. I have gotten into a lot of discussions, some rather heated, with folks, and have enjoyed every minute of it.
One concern that I have heard people voice is decreasing access to hunting ground. It may come thru urbanization, aggressive posting of property, outfitters, leasers, or whatever. I don't want to stir up trouble by trying to blame someone for the situation. But I am concern about future generations of hunters as well as those currently living in areas where access to ground is becoming darn near impossible.So, I am interested in hearing from people who want to offer possible solutions. For example, i spoke with one person who is a landowner that is involved in an informal program that allows kids, who might otherwise not have a place to hunt, to deer hunt on his land. I personally like the idea of encouraging states to buy or lease scattered tracts of land that is then made available to the public.This seems to have worked somewhat in South Dakota. It might work in states like Vermont (discussed by another poster) where just about all the land is out of reach of purchase by the ordinary Joe. Maybe its none of my business,or i come across as preachy, but i would really like to see some things done for the good of the sport. If we don't replenish our ranks with young hunters, we are just painting a big bull's eye on our backs for the anti-hunting and anti-gun crowd. So, i would love to hear what people have to say.
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"Shoot him again....his soul is still dancing"
I think one great program is Montana's Block management, whereby hunters sign up to hunt on private landowner and then landowners are paid by the state (thru license fees) according to the number of hunters that have hunted there or amount of land they have. It's great when you have the abundance of undeveloped land but might also possibly work here in the east on a more limited basis ????????????????????
you can check it out on the Montana fwp website
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Looney tunes deductive reasoning:
--Me smell Mohican burning
--Me last Mohican
--Must be me!!!
--EEEOOOWWW!!!!!
Sounds good, how do you think that it would fare in West Virginia?
Something else comes to mind. I used to live on the Mississippi river outside of Rock Island, Ill. There was a long stretch of river with small islands that was public land. Dunno if it was the state or the Army Corps of Engineers, but they had designated certain spots for ducks blinds. They then did an annual lottery to allott these spots toapplicants. The hunters were responsible for building the blind. Judging by all the gunshots I used to hear at dawn, the program was a smashing success. I would think that this type of system might work elsewhere.
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"Shoot him again....his soul is still dancing"
Lanse here in Arkansas there is the "Casy Jone's" land leese program. A person pays a very reasonable tresspass fee to the state (in the form of a paying for a permit) and the funds are distrubited to land owners in the progam.
The only problem I have seen with the program is that the lands aren't very well marked.
I am also like you in that I don't post my land, as long as you don't set-up a stand overlooking my food-plot, you are welcome to hunt the land, as long as I am not hunting that spot.
BTW Lanse and the other new folks, Good to see you all here.
Thanks
Mr-Pirk
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A proud owner of a Flying Vee. Bestowed by the fine Gentleman VC1111 himself.
I spend quite a bit of time in the Helena and Forrest City vicinity. Last year, I got into some damn good frog hunting down there. Anyway, thanks for the input. It sounds like another nice program that might have some rough spots that need to be worked out. How do they try to mark the boundaries, with paint or signs? Ialso think that its nice to hear from a landowner thatallows some access to his land.We "communists" need to stick together in that regard.
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"Shoot him again....his soul is still dancing"
In NH we have something called "current use", where if you own enough land and you leave it undeveloped and you leave it open to public use (hiking, hunting etc) then you get a HUGE tax break on your property taxes. Since property taxes fund the majority of our state, we have high property taxes so this is a big savings (however we don't have income or sales tax, so we make out good in the end )
NY, because there are some programs that benifit landowners and allow hunters a place to hunt...........you believe thats communism? I don't understand your reasoning. Nothing that I read suggests that the landowner should be made to share his land. Its still the landowners choice. I also say if a landowner is given a tax break or something similiar for allowing access to hunters, whats the problem?
I think that the tax break angle might work in Illinois. I know folks that aren't that excited about leasing, but they need the money. And a lot of folks may not feel the need to lease if they have better access to land in that type of program. It seems like a win-win situation. When I am "back home" for the holidays, I will check into what may/may not be done in this area.
Also, someone mentioned that richanti-hunting types are buying up land in Vermont. The possibility of a juicy tax break might change some of their attitudes about hunting on their land.
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"Shoot him again....his soul is still dancing"
Tort reform and / or some sort of "loser pays" system to discourage frivolous lawsuits.
Some places that used to grant access to their land in years past have recently told me that they no longer can due to liability issues. They have no objection in principle to sportsmen using the land, but they can't expose themselves to the risk that a jury will decide they need to pay some one a zillion dollars because someone tripped in the woods and injured themselves. Or even the risk that they will have to spend tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees just to get a frivoulus suit dismissed.
Improving access to hunting land
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