A rude awakening

[mr4pt]

I just got this email from an AR outdoors newsletter I subscribe to. It's a cut and paste but it clearly tells a very bleek tale.


It is widely recognized that hunter numbers are on the decline! So why
are we losing hunters? A ten year study of Arkansas hunters hunting on
International Paper reveals some of the reason hunters are leaving the
sport. The following is a summary of the study findings presented at the 27th Southeast Deer Study Group.


We periodically surveyed hunters (1992 ?2002) leasing land from
International Paper in Arkansas to provide insight into factors affecting
hunter loss. Club membership has decreased about 10% over the last 5 years but hunter density is still high (1-hunter per 50 acres). Declining hunter numbers is of significance in terms of economic impacts to landowners who lease hunting rights, funding for wildlife management programs, and more importantly the control of burgeoning deer populations. About 30,000 hunters of Arkansas deer hunters (10%) are members of a hunting club leasing from International Paper. Although, International Paper customers appear on average to be a little better educated and have a little higher household income, club members generally reflect other Arkansas hunters in terms of gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Hunter satisfaction remained high and support for Quality Deer Management has grown tremendously during the last 10 years. Annual membership turnover during the last 8 years (1995-2002) ranged from 12% to 15%. Fifty percent of hunters have been club members for less than 5 years. Hunter age is declining. A phone survey of hunters who dropped their club memberships revealed that 30% quit hunting altogether, 30% joined another lease, 27% hunted other private property, and 1% hunted on public land. Reasons cited included: club disputes 24%, travel distance 15%, health reasons 14%, in several clubs 12%, lost interest in hunting 11%, fee to high 9%, other 13%.

Of those of members who quit hunting altogether (4% of club members) most cited declining health (50%) or lost interest in the sport (30%).

24% of people who quit hunting are from club disputes. I hope that never happens here in our little HNI club...

[Christine B]

4pt, My hope is that if any of us have disagreements "Off Topic, and sometimes on" here they can addressed via the board, if not they need to be taken to private emails, PM's etc....
If nothing else just agree to disagree.....although that is not possible all of the time. No one individual can make all happy all of the time! Besides that, my feeling is that if you are a "real hunter" how can you just quit without a reason? It gets into your blood.....

Not posting and running guys,. just I have very few hours in the evening. If I do not get back to this please email giving me heck.

[kevin1]

Notice how often he word "lease" appears in your post ? Maybe those hunters were just tired of the ever escalating cost of modern sport hunting . Leasing will be the death of hunting someday .

[mr4pt]

fee to high 9%,

[seadog]

Fully agree with Kevin. In time it will become a rich mans sport if you dont own your own land. Its not as bad up here yet but more and more land is being lost to the avg guy every year

[Mike from Texas]

SO if you disagree with leases, what do you suggest? Anyone who doesn't want to or can't pay IMO has no excuse. At least in Texas there is well over 1 million acres of public hunting land available to anybody wanting to purchase a permit. The reality of it is that if you , your family or someone you know doesn't own a decent parcel of land your options are limited.

[mr4pt]

My point was that 24% of the people that quit hunting FOR GOOD was over lease disputes. I am sure some of these disputes were over money, work, or stands but one can also assume that they were over xbows, running dogs, bucks vs does, etc.

I would hate to think that I had ended someone's hunting life by my stubborness and lack of ability to bend a little on my views.

[kevin1]

ORIGINAL: Mike from Texas

SO if you disagree with leases, what do you suggest? Anyone who doesn't want to or can't pay IMO has no excuse. At least in Texas there is well over 1 million acres of public hunting land available to anybody wanting to purchase a permit. The reality of it is that if you , your family or someone you know doesn't own a decent parcel of land your options are limited.

Do you lease land to other people Mike ?
Leasing is a way of life in Texas , and has been for years , so you may not have noticed that Texas is in the minority there . The public land you speak of there is also overcrowded according to friends of mine who live there . The attitude of landowners who have chosen to lease to the highest bidder is largely responsible for this situation , not everyone can afford land to hunt on and therefore depend on the generosity of landowners or hunt the overcrowded publics .

Here in Indiana our public land only totals something like 3% of the available land , so leasing is viewed as being akin to cancer here . But as farmland continues to disappear to the ravages of development the few smaller landowners left are increasingly looking at leasing as a possible solution to their money woes. Admit it or not , this reduces hunting opportunities for everyone but the wealthy . Leasing may one day kill hunting as we know it for the common man , we won't be able to afford it anymore .