RE: Tree Stand Ethics
NJ Hunter,
I'm not sure the regs in every state but here in Iowa we can leave ourstands hanging all seson but they have to be taken down two weeks after the season and can't be put back up until two weeks before the season starts in the fall. If somebody were to leave them up year round I would check your local regs and get the local DNR to take them down.
I hunt public land with two other friends, between the three of us we have about 12 stands up. Are we monopolizing the area? Not even close. The area we hunt is so large we couldn't even begin to cover all the good spots. Now I realize that not everybody has such a large public area near but if you're hunting a 5 acre peice of public ground and see ten stand then I think I would be looking for someplace a little less traveled anyway.
Let's do look at this in a different light: Instead of going in to work today you decide to catch a ballgame. You get there early, get a general admission ticket and scout out the best seat in the section. In the third inning nature calls and you've gotta do something about those two beers you washed your nachos down with. You get back to your seat ten minutes later and there's someone sitting in it. Hey, it's a public stadium, your ticket doesn't give you claim to that specific seat, just because you got there first and got the seat you wanted doesn't mean that guy who strolled in late doesn't have just as much right to it does it? Hey, you can always go somewhere else to sit 40 rows back or so. You got your binocs?
Bottom line, this is both a courtesy and an ethics issue. I would hope that most hunters would recognize that somebody else had found and set-up in that spot before they did. It's too bad that you might find an area you really like but somebody already has a stand set-up over that trail. As a hunter though you should recognize the work that person put into findng that spot and respect them for having the skill to select a spot that you obviously agree is a good selection. You sound like you are a respectful person because you refuse to sit in somebody else's stand despite your anger, but setting a stand 10 - 20 yards from somebody elses would be like casting your lure over the bow of somebody else's boat.